Never Again
by I Heart The Distillers
Summary: CHAPTER 10 IS HERE! Lance Alvers was orphaned when he was 7 and sent ot an orpahnage. There he met Katherine Pryde, a fellow orphan at only 5 years old. Tean years later, they meet agian, but this time, on opposing teams.
1. Never Again

**Important Notice: I am currently re-writing all of the chapters in this story, because, looking back, I have a lot of plot holes and my writing is pretty weak at some parts. Please bear with me. I would still appreciate feedback on if you like the new version of the chapters and if it makes more sense. It would suck to rewrite everything and then have it be worse than before. Thanks! You guys are awesome:)  
**

**I also want to apologize for the lack of updates. I have no excuse. I'm just an awful person :( I hope I haven't lost too many of you. For those of you still reading, you are the BEST and I love you to pieces!**

A/U: Lance Alvers was orphaned when he was 7 and sent to an orphanage. There he met Katherine Pryde, a fellow orphan at only 5 years old. Ten years later, they meet again, but this time on opposing teams.

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men, and I am not making any money off of this.

* * *

**Never Again**

It was yet another cold, stormy night in the slums of Chicago. The unforgiving winds howled as rain pour down upon a small decrepit apartment building. Inside number 113 a young boy, barely seven years old, sat in a room that vaguely resembled a living space watching a small fuzzy television. He wore a dirty white t-shirt filled with holes and threadbare second hand jeans that were too big for his lanky, underfed frame.

"Lance!" a woman called (probably his mother). "Hurry up and eat something before He gets home." There was an air of fear and desperation in her voice as she told her son this, something which was not lost upon Lance. He sighed as he turned off the television and got up to join his mother in the "kitchen" area of the apartment.

She nervously gazed up at the clock as she set Lance's microwave dinner on the plastic dining table. AN appetizing meal of suspiciously brown meat and semi-liquid mashed potatoes stared back up at Lance from where he had seated himself.

"Come on Lance," his mother almost whispered. "Eat up. _Hurry_." She said this last word with an urgency that sickened Lance. The very thought of eating that so-called food was enough to—

"Lance! Don't' you dare turn your nose up at this food! This is all we can afford. Be grateful you have any food at all. With the way things are going—" Her voice wavered off into a series of light wretches and sobs.

Lance immediately felt guilty and stared down at his ratty old sneakers in shame. He lifted his plastic fork and began to eat, silently, ignoring the waves of nausea that poured over him as he took bite after revolting bite. Eventually he began to give up on chewing the leathery meat and swallowing it whole instead. After he gagged once or twice, his mother spoke up again.

"This is all we can afford right now," she repeated herself. "It's all that's in our budget." She left out the fact that the only reason she had been able to afford the microwave dinner in the fist place was because it had been on sale at the supermarket for having passed its expiration date. But never mind that. Food was food, right?

"Your father's…work hasn't been going too well," his mother continued, looking down at a yellowish-purple bruise on her wrist.

Lance sighed softly. He knew she was lying. It was obvious. He knew that his father was an unemployed drunk. He knew that the little money his father did manage to collect was blown on alcohol. He knew that each and every night his father went out to get raving drunk to forget about his problems. To forget about his family, his wife. To forget about his son. And he knew what happened when his father came home drunk.

Lance looked at his mother, sadness in his eyes. He studied her delicate face, her elegant neck, and slender arms and legs. He was sure she had once been a very beautiful woman, but with all those cutes and bruises covering almost every inch of her body, she no longer looked the part.

"Oh, Lance," she walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. He just sat there, not speaking. A lone tear ran down her face. Finally he spoke. "Don't cry, Mom," he said as he hugged her back.

She sniffled and the straightened. "Now hurry up and finish your dinner. You need to be asleep when your father gets home…"

Lance nodded and kept on eating.

When h e finished, he stood up, kissed his mother goodnight, and opened the door to what appeared to be a closet. Inside there was a tiny lamp, a small mattress, and some blankets. He steeped inside, closed the door so that only a crack was opened, turned off his lamp, and laid down to go to sleep. "Night, Mom," he called.

"Goodnight Lance, my baby," she answered quietly, tears running down her face. "I'm so sorry."

* * *

It was around 1 a.m. when the creaking door of Apartment number 113 was shoved open, and a very drunk Mr. Alvers staggered inside. 

"It's about time," Lance's mother said bitterly from the couch.

For the first time, Mr. Alver's attention was drawn to her small figure. He simply stared at her for a moment, attempting to process what she had just said. "Shut up, woman," he spat.

She stood up angrily. This was the last straw. She was standing up to him, putting her foot down. "Jack! If things were different, you could waste your life at the bar and get drunk to your heart's content and I wouldn't give a rat's ass, but _we have a son_ to raise, and bills to pay! Why can't you understand that? We have _no money_! Look around you! Do you really want your son to grow up like this—"

She was cut off by a resonating _crack_ as he smacked the side of her face viciously. She cried out, clutching her cheek.

"Don't you _dare_ talk to me like that, woman," he hissed at her venomously, the rage tangible in his voice.

Lance woke up in his closet, peeking through the crack of the door. _Oh God… It's happening again…_ He hugged his pillow to himself and curled up into a ball, holding his knees. He watched as his father made his way to the kitchen, swaying in his drunken stride. He opened the refrigeration and pulled out a beer.

His mother's eyes bulged and she gave a frustrated scream. "Haven't you had enough?" she shrieked at him. "What is _wrong with you_? You're gone all day 'working', while I'm here, trying to raise _our_ son, then you blow all the money you manage to get on drink, come home, and expect me to just silently stand by and accept it?" Her voice had reached a high pitched screech by now.

"Well I've got news for you Jack! I've had enough! I can't take it anymore! I thought you would change when Lance was born, but everything just got _worse_! I'm taking Lance, and we are getting as _far away from here as possible_!"

Lance stared from his makeshift room. He whimpered, knowing exactly what was coming next.

His father's brow crinkled in a temporary moment of doubt. "You can't leave me! You have no where to go!" he yelled, his restraint wearing dangerously thinner and thinner.

"We'll _find_ somewhere!" she screamed at him. She ran towards Lance's room, but his father blocked her path.

"You WON'T leave me!" his patience was gone. He grabbed her wrist and pushed her down onto the floor. He punched at her, hitting her jaw, and then her stomach. She screamed, which merely prompted him to hit her harder. "You going to leave _now_ woman?" he whispered maliciously.

Lance looked away. He had never seen his father so angry. Before, he had only slapped her once or twice, or pushed her around. This time her seemed almost… for lack of a better word, bloodthirsty. There was a malevolent glint in his eyes that had never been present before, a crazed animalistic glint which almost screamed _I'll kill her, I'll kill her just to hear her scream some more_.

_No, no, no. _Please_ no…_ He hugged his knees tighter.

Jack had backed his mother up against a cabinet near the television, and she was terrified, shaking all over. Last time she had almost broken her arm, but now she could tell it was going to be much worse. He was looking murderous. She whimpered and began to open a drawer quickly. Tears were streaming down her face as she reached in and grabbed a small, black handgun. She was trembling from head to foot.

Lance's father laughed. "Go ahead, take a shot!" he yelled at her, the maniacal glimmer in his eyes growing. "You can't, you don't have it in you! You wouldn't shoot your own husband!" he said, his bone chilling laughter returning.

He lunged toward her, ready to beat her, ready to break her frail body, when a deafening roar was heard followed by a thump. Then a hysterical sob and the sound of someone falling to the floor.

Lance timidly lifted his head from the mattress to look out the crack in the door. His body was practically convulsing as he tried to stand, his jelly legs barely supporting him. He slowly stepped out of his room. Nothing could have ever prepared him for what he saw on the other side of that door.

His father was on the floor, his body twisted in a strange position, his own crimson blood flowing all over the floor. Next to him, in a blood-drenched, sobbing heap, was his mother on her knees. She was hyperventilating, holding the sleek, black gun in her hands, just staring at her husband's corpse.

Lance couldn't move. He watched in horror. It finally hit him that his father was dead. His mother had killed him. He was gone. Gone for good. Then the sight of his mother screaming and crying, gasping for breath sunk in, making him feel sick. He started vomiting all over the floor a few feet from where his parents lay. He couldn't breathe, and he remembered falling to the ground, and blacking out.

* * *

When he woke up, the buzzing of sirens and flashing lights surrounded him. He knew he had been moved from where he had fallen in the apartment. He was on a cot, or a stretcher, maybe, but when he tried to sit up to get a better look of where he was, he instantly regretted doing so. He suddenly felt nauseous again, and started throwing up over the side of the stretcher. A woman was instantly next to him. 

"Calm down, sweetie," she said in a soothing voice. "Let it all out, you'll feel a lot better once you do." She placed her hand on Lance's back as a fresh wave of nausea overcame him.

He slowly realized he was outside his apartment building on an ambulance stretcher. Apparently, a concerned neighbor had heard all the screaming and had called the police. Lance felt so dizzy and out of place. He tried to talk. "Where's Mom?" he whispered, sounding like the frightened, helpless child he was.

The woman smiled sadly. "Your mom's going to be okay, don't worry," she said. "We'll take care of her."

With that, Lance relaxed and let sleep over come his tired body.

It was two days later that Lance was finally able to see his mother. A nurse that had taken care of him when he got to the hospital that night was taking him to the room where his mother was.

"Is she okay?" Lance asked.

The nurse paused, wondering how to explain it to a small child. "She's—she will be okay… physically… but the rest of her will get better…in time…"

"So when can we go home?" he said, sounding so innocent for a child who had seen so much.

The nurse looked down at him, an unfamiliar emotion in her eyes. Lance couldn't identify it at first… Instead of answering his question she sighed and looked away.

_Pity… It was pity._

They arrived at the room and stepped inside. It was scary for Lance, seeing his mother, then only person he had ever loved, lying on the white bed looking so sickly and thin. She was hooked up to a variety of machines, one of which emitted a steady, monotonous beeping sound.

"What's wrong with her?" Lance asked the nurse, his voice barely audible.

"Well, Lance… We—we brought you here to say goodbye to your mom…" she said solemnly, feeling extremely guilty. She had tried to hint that she wasn't going to be able to go home for a while, but he was too young to understand her subtlety.

Lance looked up at her in disbelief. "What? What are you talking about? Mom's coming home, and everything's going to be okay!" he screamed, panicking.

"Lance," the nurse said, her heart breaking for the little boy. "Lance, your mother had a mental breakdown… She—she can't take care of you anymore."

Lance tore away from her and ran to his mother's bedside. "You're lying! You said everything would be okay!" he cried, tears falling freely from his chocolate brown eyes. "You lied to me!" He began shaking his mother, but she wasn't responding; she just kept staring at the wall. "Mom!" he screamed. "Mom! Wake up!" He was hysterical. His mother finally seemed to wake.

"Lance?" she said. "Lance. My baby. My Lance. Is that you?"

"It's me Mom! She said that you couldn't take care of me! She's lying right? Right, Mom? Everything's going to be okay, right?" he cried frantically.

"Lance, I can't…"

"You can't what, Mom?"

"I can't take care of you anymore…"

"But Mom! You—"

"You'll be better off if you go with her, Lance," she said and smiled weakly. "Just go, Lance. Promise me you'll go."

"Why Mom? Why? Don't you want me? Don't you love me? Why are you lying to me? Why is everyone lying to me?" he begged of his mother, tears falling like rain.

"I—I'm not lying to you sweetie. Of course I love you. I wouldn't do this if I didn't have to…but I just can't anymore. I can't take care of you. I can't give you a good life. Listen to me Lance," her voice cracked as she started to cry as well. "Listen to me, go with the nurse. _Go with her_. Promise me, no matter what, that you'll go with her. Do you promise, Lance?"

The seven year old swallowed his sobs and nodded. "I promise, Mom."

He stood on his tiptoes next to her bed, gave her a kiss, and hugged her. "I love you," he said.

"I love you too, Lance. More than life itself… more than life itself," she whispered back.

The nurse stood in the corner, forgotten. "Lance," she said. "I'm gong to take you to the orphanage now. You'll be living there, and you'll make lots of friends." She tried to smile and sound enthusiastic and positive, but only succeeded in sounding strained. It was times like these when she hated her job.

"Coming," he said, his voice cracking, making no effort to wipe away his tears. He took her hand and walked out of the room, trying not to look back.

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading! Now make my day and hit the review button and leave me a nice long review. You know you want to ;) Let me know what you think! 


	2. The Simple Truth

**Important Notice: I am currently re-writing all of the chapters in this story, because, looking back, I have a lot of plot holes and my writing is pretty weak at some parts. Please bear with me I would still appreciate feedback on if you like the new version of the chapters and if it makes more sense. It would suck to rewrite everything and then have it be worse than before. Thanks! You guys are awesome **

**I also want to apologize for the lack of updates. I have no excuse. I'm just an awful person  I hope I haven't lost too many of you. For those of you still reading, you are the BEST and I love you to pieces!**

A/U: Lance Alvers was orphaned when he was 7 and sent to an orphanage. There he met Katherine Pryde, a fellow orphan at only 5 years old. Ten years later, they meet again, but this time on opposing teams.

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men, and I am not making any money off of this.

* * *

**The Simple Truth**

Lance was silent, his eyes red and puffy as the nurse led him to the lobby, where yet another smiling blode woman was waiting for him. When the blonde saw the nurse with Lance, she walked up to them and introduced herself.

"You must be Lance," she said gently. "My name is Sally, and I'm gong to be taking you to the place where you'll be living for a while."

Lance just stood next to the nurse, looking at his hands, trying not to cry. He hadn't heard anything the woman had just said. Only the words _for a while_.

"I'll leave him with you now, okay? Thank you for doing this, Sally," the nurse said, smiling at the blonde. She patted Lance on the back. "It'll be okay," she whispered in his ear. Then she turned and left.

Lance suddenly felt angry for the first time since all of this had happened. He wanted to kick that stupid nurse. Why was everyone lying to him, telling him that it was going to be all right, when it wasn't? He was _sick_ of those three little words: It'll be okay. No it _wouldn't_! He would probably never get to see his mom again, and people like the nurse kept saying that everything was going to be okay again! Nothing would _ever_ be okay again. Never. Nothing would ever be _remotely_ normal to him again.

"Lance?" Sally asked. _Poor thing, he must have seen some awful things._

He saw the same look in her eyes. _Pity… Pity!_

He quickly looked away.

Sally remembered from the file she had been given when assigned Lance's case (she was a social worker) that his father physically abused him mother, and a few nights ago she had shot him in self defense. From what Sally understood, Lance had probably seen the whole thing. This had to be one of the most traumatic cases she had received in the past couple months.

"Lance?" she repeated.

"I…I miss my mom," he said, choking on the words, tears brimming and threatening to spill again.

"I know you do, Lance," she said and bent down to pat his back. "C'mon, let's take you to your new home/ for a while, anyway." She whispered the last part under her breath.

With that, she took Lance's hand and they walked out of the hospital, away from Lance's mother, and into the parking lot, towards his new life.

Meanwhile, all Lance could think was _No, you don't know. You have no idea._

_

* * *

_

Throughout the whole ride to St. Charles' Orphanage in downtown Chicago Lance did not speak once. Every now and then Sally heard him sniffling or wiping his eyes, but she was never able to start a conversation with him.

She had figured that he wasn't going to want to talk to anyone, considering he had just basically lost him mother, but she still felt bad. She knew sooner or later he would have to talk to someone about it or else all the pain and distress he was experiencing would eat at him forever. She just hoped he talked sooner.

Sally finally pulled up to a pleasant looking building, parked the car, and got out with Lance. He hesitated before he stepped inside, but Sally finally coaxed him in.

Lance felt scared and vulnerable as he walked in, surrounded by toys and games: things that he had never had before. He latched onto Sally's arm tightly, as if afraid he might get lost in this strange and foreign world of playthings. Sally smiled at his antics, and with her free hand, ruffled his hair.

She walked up to the chck-in desk. "Hello, I'm here to drop-off Lance," she said.

_Drop off_. Realization of what was happening dawned on him. Sally was going to leave him here with these nameless people and their toys and he would be alone again. He had been alone all too often lately. He held her arm tighter when he heard that, but still said nothing.

The man behind the desk typed something onto the computer.

"Do you have his file with you?" he asked politely.

"Yes, one second, let me get it." Sally looked down, "Hey, Lance, I need my arm really quick, okay?"

"Okay…" he whispered, and reluctantly loosened his hold on her arm. He clasped his hands behind his back and watched Sally.

Sally took her brief case off of her other shoulder and opened the front compartment. She searched through a bunch of other folders before exclaiming triumphantly. "Ah! Here it is!" She gave it to the man behind the counter.

"Thank you Miss. Just let me get his general information typed in and I'll take him to the back for a tour, so that he can meet the other kids here." He then turned to his computer and began typing.

Lance, who was getting over the initial shyness he had first experienced when he entered the lobby, was now beginning to pick up some of the Lego's and dinosaur toys that littered the floor and was playing with them. Sally smiled, glad that he was starting to relax and open up.

In about five minutes, the man from the check-in was done and came out from behind the desk. He saw Lance on the floor with the toys, and walked over to where he was and offered him a hand to help him get up. Lance took it, and then the man said, "Hi, Lance."

"Hi."

"I'm Greg, and I'm gonna be taking care of you for a while, along with a bunch of other people who work here."

_For a while. _He nodded, all of his former shyness returning.

"Lance," Sally said, bending down to face him, "I've got to go right now, but I'll be back either tomorrow or the next day, to visit you, okay?"

"Okay," he said softly. "Bye, Sally." He tried to smile but his eyes, which were red from crying in the car, made him look very odd and confused. _She's leaving…_

She hugged him. "Bye, Lance." To her surprise he hugged her back. "Have fun." And with that, she stood and walked out of the building, turned to wave at Lance, and then walked to her car.

Lance turned to Greg, waiting for him to say something.

"Why don't we go back there, and I'll show you around, and you can meet everyone?"

"All right."

Greg smiled and gestured to the door behind the reception desk.

"C'mon," he said.

Lance walked through the door behind Greg.

"Wow…" Lance said in awe, before he could help it. The room was filled with toys and stuffed animals. There was a huge, over stuffed couch in front of it. Movies like "The Lion King" and "The Sword in the Stone" that his mom had never been able to take him to. He felt a tear slide down his cheek as he thought of his mother. There were pillows and blankets littered about the couch and on the floor and over all it looked very cozy.

"This is the common room, where most of the kids hang out in the afternoon. Right now everyone's at lunch, which brings us here," he said as he led Lance out of the room and into a hall. At the end of the hall they turned right and there was a huge room, about as big as the common room.

"This is the kitchen," he said pointing to the left side of the room, which had an oven, a stove, and many other cooking appliances.

"You'll eat over here," Greg gestured to the right half of the room which had about ten different tables, all filled with children who were eating hungrily.

"Do you want to eat now?" Greg asked him.

Lance shook his head. "I'm not hungry," he said.

This worried Greg. "Are you sure? Sally told me that you haven't eaten since this morning… It's about 4:30 now. Are you positive you don't want something?"

"Yeah."

Lance hadn't felt the urge to eat anything since that night… Anything he did try to eat almost always ended up coming right back out as he vomited. And afterwards he would dry-heave for at least five minutes. He wasn't eager to repeat the cycle.

"Okay then… well, when you're hungry, tell me and I'll get something for you, 'kay?"

" 'kay."

"Well, since you're not gonna be eating, I might as well show you the rest of the place."

Greg turned around and walked down the hall with Lance in tow.

"All right then," he said when he was back at the hallway leading to the common room. Instead of turning to go to the common room, though, he kept going straight. They came to yet another gigantic room filled with beds.

"This is the dormitory, where all the kids sleep, and those two doors over there lead to the bathrooms. How 'bout we get you a bed?" he smiled.

Lance's eyes lit up, and he looked a little excited. After all, he had never had a real bed. Just a thin mattress with rag-like sheets and a flat, lumpy pillow, but he didn't want to think about that. It hurt too much. It made him think of his mother.

Here, each bed had a colorful comforter, and there was a small dresser to the left of each bed to put any clothes or belongings into.

"This one looks nice," Greg said as he sat down on a bed with a deep blue comforter. "What d'ya think?" He patted the mattress beneath him.

Lance sat down on it, pleased when it bounced a little. "I like it," he said, a genuine smile creeping onto his face for the first time since that awful night.

"Great!" Greg said, happy that Lance was smiling. "I'll just go get you a pillow and you'll be all set for tonight. Then we can go and I'll introduce you to all the other kids." Greg walked out of the room quickly, headed to the common room to grab Lance a pillow.

Lance just lay on his bed staring up at the ceiling. _His bed_. He liked the sound of that. It was comforting. It gave him a sense of security. He slowly dozed off, getting some much-needed sleep. He hadn't slept well since his first day at the hospital, and he was beat.

Greg came back in. "Hey, Lance, I got you your pillow…" he said, but then he noticed Lance's silent form, sprawled out on the mattress. "Well at least he's sleeping… Poor kid, looked like he'd been up all night." He turned the lights off and silently closed the door. Then he went to help out Sara, who also worked at the orphanage. Coaxing stubborn three-year-olds into taking a shower wasn't the easiest task to do, especially when alone.

* * *

Two days later, a Saturday, Sally came by to visit Lance, but with a little girl to drop off at the orphanage as well.

The little girl had cried herself to sleep on the way to the orphanage and Sally had to carry her in and lay her on the couch in the common room so she could get her checked in.

"I've got her file here: Katherine Hail."

Greg took the file and typed in her info. "So," he said, trying to make conversation, "How did Katherine come to be here?" He had just started typing in her file; he didn't know yet.

Sally sighed. "Her mom brought her to the park and told her to wait there for her; that she was going to come back. She told her 'Don't move.' Well, she never came back and when a concerned woman asked Katherine what she was doing there so late, and she replied 'Waiting for mom.' The woman called social services, and I went to pick her up. She slept at my house since she had no idea where her mother was, and she was fine, actually. Turns out she was used to her mother being gone for long periods of time. This morning, around 8, I got a call from the police. They found Katherine's mom, Karen Hail in a back alley, dead. She had been shot."

She took a deep breath, her heart heavy.

"Any idea why?"

"None at all," she sighed. "It's just so awful, the things that happen in this city! And then I had to tell Katherine that her mom was dead, and she would come here, and she just broke down crying. Cried herself to sleep on the way here."

"It's really not fair to them; they're so young and most of them have seen the worst of life already," he said, shaking his head remorsefully.

"Yeah—" Sally was cut off by a panicked squeal coming from the common room.

"_Sally_?" Katherine sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

"Calm down, Katherine, I'm here," she said running into the common room. She sat down on the couch. "I'm right here," she said, stroking the girl's long, brown hair soothingly.

Greg joined her in the common. "Do you want me to go get Lance? He'll be really happy you came… He's been really quiet since he got here—doesn't talk to any of the kids or anything. Maybe he can show Katherine around."

"That would be great!"

"I'll go get him." And with that, Greg rushed off to get Lance.

He found him in the dormitory on his bed, looking up at the ceiling, ignoring the other kids in the room who were laughing and playing.

"Lance?" Greg asked.

He looked up. "Yes?"

"Sally's here to see you. She brought someone with her, too." Greg smiled as Lance's eyes lit up.

"Really?"

"Yeah. She's in the common room."

Lance bolted out of the dormitory, down the hall, and into the common room. Greg just stayed in the dormitory to supervise the other kids.

He figured Lance would be happy that Sally came to visit. He had probably felt so abandoned by the world when he had been dropped off just two days ago. It was only natural to assume that he would be overjoyed that Sally had come back to see him. _I hope he gets along with Katherine_. _He could really use a good friend._

_

* * *

_

"Sally!" Lance cried out, ecstatic. He ran up to her and hugged her. Sally smiled and squeezed him affectionately, glad to see a change in his attitude towards her.

"Lance, this is Katherine," she said, getting up to drag Katherine over to meet Lance. Katherine rubbed her puffy eyes.

Lance gaped at her, as if enthralled by her. The two children merely stare at each other for a while, with Sally watching them both, slightly confused, looking from one to the other.

Finally, Lance said something. "Hi, my name's Lance," he said, holding out a hand shyly.

Katherine's cheeks got rosy, and she giggled, tears forgotten. "I'm Katherine." She took his hand and shook it. Then they went to the couch and began talking as if they had known each other their whole lives.

Sally stood in the center of the room, smiling warmly at them. "Katherine? Lance? I've got to go, but why don't you show her around, Lance?"

Their faces brightened. "Okay!" Lance said, truly happy for the first time in a while. "Bye, Sally!" he went up to her and hugged her. And then grabbed Katherine's hand and began showing her around.

Sally grinned, and turned to leave. Though her job was pretty depressing at times, things like this made it all seem worth while. Like she _was_ making a difference. She smiled to herself and walked out to the parking lot, ready to go home after another long day.

* * *

By the time Lance had finished showing Katherine around and helping get all of her stuff ready (her bed was right next to his), it was about 7:30. While all the other kids were in the common room watching a movie, Lance and Katherine sat on his bed, talking

"Hey, Katherine?" Lance asked.

The five year old looked at him from across the bed. "Yeah?"

"Can I call you Katie?"

Her innocent smile all but vanished from her face, and her eyes began to well up. "My… my mother used to c-call me Katie…" she choked out between sobs.

Understanding what she was going through, he reached forward and pulled her into his arms, and held her there, trying to quiet her crying.

He'd only known her for a couple of hours, but she was already like a little sister to him, and he was protective of her, wrapping his arms around her, determined to ease her spirits. It was amazing how much older he seemed then.

"How 'bout I call you Kitty then?" he said softly into her hair.

She looked up at him and smiled through her tears. "I like it." She laid her head back down on Lance's chest contentedly. "I'm really glad I met you, Lance," she said, hugging him.

"I'm really glad I met you, too, Kitty."

She giggled at her new nick-name. Content, she fell asleep in his arms.

The seven year old looked at her lovingly. "I'll always be there to take care of you." And with that, he fell asleep too.

* * *

A/N: Review! 


	3. I Will Crumble

**Important Notice: I am currently re-writing all of the chapters in this story, because, looking back, I have a lot of plot holes and my writing is pretty weak at some parts. Please bear with me I would still appreciate feedback on if you like the new version of the chapters and if it makes more sense. It would suck to rewrite everything and then have it be worse than before. Thanks! You guys are awesome **

**I also want to apologize for the lack of updates. I have no excuse. I'm just an awful person  I hope I haven't lost too many of you. For those of you still reading, you are the BEST and I love you to pieces!**

A/U: Lance Alvers was orphaned when he was 7 and sent to an orphanage. There he met Katherine Pryde, a fellow orphan at only 5 years old. Ten years later, they meet again, but this time on opposing teams.

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men, and I am not making any money off of this.

* * *

**I Will Crumble**

Over the next week or two, Lance and Kitty grew closer. They spent every waking second of the day together, and if they hadn't been so young, it would have been very suspicious.

Lance had never been so happy in his life. He had never really had a true friend when he lived with his parents, but when he was with Kitty, he forgot all about that. She made him feel…complete. He wasn't exactly sure how he felt about her. Whenever they were together (which was most of the time) his heart sped up, and when she laughed he would get flutters in his stomach.

It utterly confused him—he was only _seven_ after all! Most sever year olds wouldn't be caught dead feeling that way about a _girl_, but he couldn't help that he felt that way…he just…did. He decided not to think about what _exactly_ he felt for Kitty; besides, everything was perfect now. He should have known it wouldn't last.

Nothing, however, seemed different on the night of December 19 when there was a raging thunderstorm over Chicago.

Kitty whimpered in her sleep and curled her knees closer into her chest. She was clutching her pillow tightly and kept her eyes squeezed shut as another bolt of lightning struck, lighting up the room for a fraction of a second. Her eyes bolted open.

She pulled her covers back, and stepped out of her bed. Kitty tiptoed to Lance's bed, which was only a few feet from hers. She sat down quietly on the side of his bed.

"Lance," she whispered, shaking him lightly. She was shivering all over. He didn't wake.

"Lance!" she whined, tears welling up in her eyes. "Lance wake up!"

He stirred. "Wha'? Huh?"

"Lance?"

"Kitty?"

"I can't sleep Lance!" she said, tears falling. "I- I'm scared…"

Lance's look of protest from being woken up so mercilessly softened as he watched her biting her bottom lip, trying not to burst out sobbing. "Come here," he said as he pulled the covers of his bed back.

She crawled up to the front of the bed, and laid her head on the pillow, next to his. He moved to pull the comforter back up to cover them both, and laid back down. Kitty snuggled closer to him and he wrapped his arms around her.

A crack of thunder sounded, followed by another bolt of lightning. Lance felt Kitty tense. "Shh…" he whispered to her soothingly, stroking her hair. "It's okay."

Kitty relaxed, feeling safe, now that she was next to Lance.

"Hey, Lance," she whispered, looking up at him.

"Yeah?"

"Does anything ever scare you?" She looked so adorable and innocent with her glassy, clear blue eyes. Sometimes it was amazing to think of all that she'd been through.

"Yes…" he admitted reluctantly.

"Like what?" she asked him, curious.

"My father; he really scared me…" he said, closing his eyes, as if trying to make the thoughts that were attacking his mind go away.

Kitty noticed this and squeezed is arms which encircled her protectively. "Why?"

"He- he would hurt my mom."

"You mean like yell at her and make her feel bad?"

"No… he- he would…hit her…" he trailed off, looking away.

"I'm sorry," she said, feeling guilty.

"It's okay."

"But I thought you said he was gone," she said, curiosity getting the better of her.

"He is."

"Then why does he still scare you? He can't hurt your mom any more."

"I guess I'm just scared that I'll end up like him…"

"Oh." Kitty was silent for a minute. "Don't worry; you'll never be like him."

"I hope so."

"Besides, you said you would always take care of me, and you would never do that to me, right?"

"Right," Lance said. "I'll always be there for you." He pulled her closer to him and smiled.

"Always," he murmured to her now sleeping from. Having said that, he too fell asleep, the lightning flashing outside the window.

* * *

Early, the next morning, Greg walked into the dormitory quietly, carrying some of the kids' freshly laundered clothes. He stopped when he noticed Kitty's bed was empty. 

His first thought was panic, but the he saw her in Lance's bed, both of them cuddled up together, sleeping peacefully. He was unsure of how to react. _I mean, sure, they're only kids, but what if they get into a habit?_ He decided he needed a second opinion.

He left to get Sara, who was in the middle of eating her cereal, and dragged her to the dormitory. He pointed at Lance and Kitty.

"Aw! They're so adorable!" she gushed

"Is that…is it _okay_ for them to do that?" Greg asked, uncertain. "Should I move her?"

"Nah…just leave her for now…besides she's 5 and he's 7—it's not like anything's going to happen," she laughed.

"O-okay," Greg said, still slightly confused. "Right, I thought so too, I just wasn't sure… Well now that that's cleared up, I'm just going to go…" he said as he walked out.

* * *

When Kitty and Lance finally woke up and went to the kitchen, Sara came up to Kitty. 

"Hey, Kitty, can I sit with you?"

"Sure!" Kitty said, excited and delighted that the older girl wanted to talk to her.

"We got a call this morning from a family who wants to take care of you; they're on their way right now."

"Really?"

"Yup! And if you like then, you can go live with them," Sara said, grinning.

"Wow! I have to go tell Lance!"

"Wait—Kitty, don't tell Lance just yet, okay? He might get…jealous…" Sara felt bad lying to Kitty like that, but she knew if Lance found out, he would tell her anything to make sure she wouldn't go. While Sara thought that their bond was sweet, Kitty needed a real home, with real parents who cared about her. They both did.

"Oh…" Kitty said, confused, "Okay…"

"Great! Now that that's settled, how 'bout we get you washed up before they get here?"

"Okay!" Kitty said, excited once again. Kitty grabbed Sara's hand and dragged her towards the bathrooms in the dormitory.

_Wow_! _I wish they were all this enthusiastic about taking baths._

_

* * *

_

About half an hour after Sara had taken Kitty to give her a bath, the Pryde's arrived. They looked like warm, kind-hearted people. They walked up to the reception desk, where Greg was typing something into the computer. He turned around when he heard the door open.

"Hello," he said, and then looked down at a file on the computer desk. "You must be Mr. and Mrs. Pryde."

"Yes," Mrs. Pryde said. "We called earlier about Katherine."

"Yeah, that's right—one sec, let me go and get her. She was taking a bath earlier," he explained.

"Okay," Mr. Pryde nodded and looked at his wife. She was so excited. He wrapped his arm around her, and she laid her head on his shoulder. They waited there like that until Greg came back, this time followed by the most adorable little girl.

Mrs. Pryde held her breath while Kitty looked at them like a deer caught in the headlights. She shook it off quickly, and ran up to them.

"Mr. Greg told me that you're going to be my mom and dad!" she squealed, grabbing Mrs. Pryde's hand, jumping up and down.

Mrs. Pryde looked a little surprised at first, but then she knelt down to Kitty's level. She had expected Kitty to be shy and withdrawn from what she had been told about how she had ended up at the orphanage, but the ecstatic little girl in front of her was exactly the opposite of that. Mrs. Pryde smiled.

"That's right! We're going to get all your stuff and you'll come live with us now!"

"Really?"

"Really," Mrs. Pryde said, delighted with Kitty. She stood up, still holding Kitty's hand and leaned over to her husband.

"She's adorable, isn't she?" she whispered in his ear.

"Yeah, she's perfect," he whispered back. "Well, Kitty," he said, "Let's get your stuff, shall we? The sooner leave, the sooner we can show you your new home."

For the first time that morning, Kitty's smile flickered. "What…what about Lance?" she said quietly.

"Lance?" Mr. and Mrs. Pryde looked at Greg with confused expressions upon their faces.

"Lance is her best friend here," Greg told the Pryde's worriedly. "They have a…special bond, I guess is what you'd call it…"

"Oh…"

"Honey, Lance can't come with us, too…" Mrs. Pryde said gently.

"Can…can I at least say goodbye?" She looked so crushed.

"Of course, darling," Mrs. Pryde said, smiling at her little girl.

Kitty let go of Mrs. Pryde's hand and ran to the dormitory, where she found Lance, sitting on his bed.

"Hey, Lance."

"Hi Kitty—what's wrong?" he said, noticing her pained expression.

"I- I'm going away…I—there's a family out there, I'm going to live with them…" She looked at her feet.

"What?" Lance jumped off of his bed and grabbed her shoulders. "You - please - don't… don't leave me!" he pleaded softly, hugging her to his chest. He felt tears forming in his eyes, but he ignored them.

"I'm sorry, Lance," Kitty hugged him back, getting teary eyed, herself. "They'll take care of me now… I'll have a house to live in and everything—" She tried to make him see the positive side so that he would be happy for her.

"But _I _was supposed to take care of you! Not anyone else," he said, his voice cracking. "Don't - _please _- don't go with them!" he begged.

For some time, they just stood there, holding each other and crying. Finally, Kitty pulled away. "I- I have to go now," she said, trying desperately not to look at him. She knew if she looked into his eyes, she wouldn't be able to bear leaving him all alone.

"B-bye, Lance. Thanks for everything…" she trailed off, turning around to walk to the door where her 'parents' stood, waiting for her.

"Wait!" Lance cried.

Kitty turned around.

"Kitty I—you—" but Lance couldn't find the words to express what he was feeling at that moment, nor the strength to speak them. He looked away defeated. "Bye."

Kitty turned around again and walked out of the door with her new parents.

"I love you, Kitty," Lance whispered just as she left.

He couldn't believe that she was gone! It- it wasn't possible! She couldn't just be gone—they were meant to be together! He was supposed to take care of her! He had promised her…

_No_, a spiteful voice in his head countered, _I just wasn't good enough for her. She wanted a _home _and a _mom _and _dad. _She'd never get that if she stayed here with _me.

Lance took a deep breath as his anguish and sadness turned to bitterness and anger. _It's not true!_ Lance reasoned with himself. _It's not that she didn't think I was good enough—she just wanted something to call her own. Something to hold onto. _

This made sense to Lance; after all, when he'd arrived here and gotten _his_ bed, he'd finally felt like he had something to call his own. Kitty had never felt that way about anything, but if she had parents and a home, she would.

Lance sighed and wiped the tears from his eyes. He knew it was no use tearing himself up about it. He would just have to accept it… but that was so hard! She was the only person he could ever relate to in this place, and now she was out of his life, probably forever, too.

It was as if God didn't want him to be happy or something! What had he ever done to deserve this life of misery and loss! He was only seven, for crying out loud! And, already, he'd lost anyone he had ever been close to.

He was so lost in his emotions right then, he didn't notice the room around him beginning to shake. He barely noticed that while he was doing all this thinking, he had clenched his fists and his eyes had somehow rolled to the back of his head. It wasn't until he heard cries from the children in the common room as something crashed, that he realized what was going on.

His head snapped up and the shaking of the ground stopped instantly. He looked around, trying to figure out what had just happened, but he couldn't. His head felt like someone was pounding on if from the inside with a hammer.

Just before everything got blurry he figured out what had happened. _He_ had caused the ground to shake like that! He didn't have time to think on it, he crumpled to the ground. The headache had become too much for him to bear. He was unconscious.

* * *

Kitty looked out of the car window in the back seat. She missed Lance already, and she'd only been separated from him for a few hours. 

Her 'mom' saw this, but decided not to say anything about it. What _could_ she say?

"We're here," her 'dad' told her. Kitty's eyes brightened up as they drove up to the two-story house.

"Wow! That's where we live?" she asked, in awe.

"Yup, that's it. Come on inside, and we'll show you around," her dad said, smiling.

Kitty squealed excitedly, and ran up to the door. Her mom chuckled, and unlocked the door. Kitty ran inside looking around.

"Wow! It's huge!" she cried. She ran into the living room, where there was a menorah above the fireplace. She jumped onto the couch and sighed happily.

"Welcome home, Kitty," her mom said as she hugged her. "Welcome home."

* * *

A/N: Okay, so there's that chapter… I know that the adoption process takes a much longer period of time, but for the sake of the story I made it REALLY short. Review and tell me what you think! 


	4. Taking Over Me

**Important Notice: I am currently re-writing all of the chapters in this story, because, looking back, I have a lot of plot holes and my writing is pretty weak at some parts. Please bear with me I would still appreciate feedback on if you like the new version of the chapters and if it makes more sense. It would suck to rewrite everything and then have it be worse than before. Thanks! You guys are awesome **

**I also want to apologize for the lack of updates. I have no excuse. I'm just an awful person  I hope I haven't lost too many of you. For those of you still reading, you are the BEST and I love you to pieces!**

A/U: Lance Alvers was orphaned when he was 7 and sent to an orphanage. There he met Katherine Pryde, a fellow orphan at only 5 years old. Ten years later, they meet again, but this time on opposing teams.

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men, and I am not making any money off of this.

* * *

**Taking Over Me**

_She was all alone, lost in a dark abyss. She could hear thunder, and someone was crying. She looked around, but saw no one. She opened her mouth to speak, to call out to someone or something, but suddenly she felt a presence behind her. The …person wrapped its arms around her waist and held her close._

_"Don't worry…I'm here now…You're going to be fine…"_

_The voice was low and masculine. It sounded comforting… and yet, at the same time, the voice hurt to listen to._

_She was confused. Who was this person, why was he holding her, and what on Earth was he talking about? Of course she would be fine. There was nothing wrong with her… yet. She struggled to get out of his grasp and cried out. He took a step back. She couldn't see his face, but his body language showed that he was discouraged._

_"What's…what's wrong?" he said, his voice ridden with confusion._

_"I- Do I know you?" she spoke for the first time._

_"Kitty…" the boy said; hurt clouding his face even more. "Don't—don't you remember me?"_

_A puzzled look made its way onto her face. "I-"_

_She stopped when the boy turned away and bowed his head. "You don't, do you?" he said, dejected. "I should have known."_

_He sighed. "Goodbye, Kitty."_

"_But—wait! Please don't go!"_

_She moved to stop him- something _had _seemed familiar about him, she just couldn't _rememberwhat_—but he was gone. He had dissolved into thin air!_

_She was back where she started now, all alone. The crying grew louder, finally turning into a horrified shriek. That's when she realized it—_she _was the one screaming! _

_She was falling, falling into nothingness, dark blackness, screaming for help, but to no avail. Out of the darkness appeared two glowing eyes. They were filled with sadness. She screamed even louder._

"_Someone…Anyone—Help me!"_

_"Don't you remember?" the voice echoed over and over again._

_Still screaming, she clutched her head as if trying to drown out the voice, trying to make it stop. A ghostly feeling ran through her body as she screamed louder, falling faster._

_"Remember…remember…remember…"_

_Her screaming stopped abruptly as she hit something hard.

* * *

_

Kitty's eyes flew open as she hit the ground. She expected to see the familiar crème colored rug from her room, guessing that she had fallen off her bed. She panicked when she awoke on a cold, cement floor. Where was she? Her heart pounded faster and faster.

She let out an earsplitting shriek.

Quickly, she picked herself off of the floor, looking around desperately for clues as to where she was. An old couch with broken springs sticking out of it was to her immediate left, a washing machine next to a dryer, a small television on a table… She was in her basement. From where she was lying, she could she the cobwebs in the corner of the room.

She screamed again. She was breathing heavily, holding herself, trying to figure out how she _got_ into her basement.

Finally, light entered the basement as her parents opened the door, and, seeing her there, rushed down the stairs to her.

Her mother ran to hug her, calming her, patting her back soothingly. "It's okay, Kitty. You're fine, everything's okay. You were just sleep-walking, you had a bad dream," her mother told her. "Shh… calm down…deep breaths…"

Kitty gradually started breathing normally again. "But how could I have gotten down here? The door was locked!"

Silence followed her statement. Then her father spoke. "I… I think I have an idea of how…" he trailed off, looking at the ceiling. Hanging there, suspended halfway through the ceiling, was her pillow and her blanket. Kitty and her mother gasped.

"But… but _how_? I-I can't do that!" Kitty said hysterically, her breaths becoming rushed and uneven again.

"I… don't know…" her father said, walking over to her, hugging her.

"What _am_ I? What's _happening_ to me? I'm- I'm a _freak_, aren't I?" she sobbed, not able to hold in all these emotions she was feeling. Wonder, fascination, curiosity, horror, disgust, self-loathing...

"You are NOT a freak, Kitty! And no matter _what_, we will always love you."

Kitty's crying gradually lessened as her parents held her.

After Kitty had managed to calm down, she went back up to her room, got dressed and ate breakfast. She was still in denial, and doing everything in her power to try not to think about it.

"Kitty?" her mother asked. "Are you sure you want to go to school?"

"Yeah—it'll give me something else to think about. I think… I'll go crazy just sitting here all day…" she looked away from her mother, ashamed.

"Kitty, it's not your fault…people don't have any control over these things…"

"I know, I _know_, but—_why me_? What did I ever do wrong? I- I just feel like I'm being punished for s-something…" she said, rubbing her red eyes.

"It's not a punishment…you were just _born_ that way, honey. Everyone is different…"

Kitty nodded and looked down. "Well, I'd better get to school…bye Mom," she said as she kissed her mother and headed for the door. With a final wave she headed out, beginning her walk to school.

Kitty's mother sighed and sat down at the table in the kitchen with a huge mug filled to the brim with coffee. Boy was she ever going to need it! It was barely 8 o'clock, and she already was having a bad day. She hardly knew it was going to get even worse…

* * *

In front of a very large computer screen sat a man wearing a headset, his brow furrowed in concentration. Suddenly a red signal went off.

"Discovery- Mutant signature. The second detection in this vicinity. Extrapolations complete. Identity confirmed. Name: Kitty Pryde. Residence: Northbrook, Illinois. Age: 15," a monotone computerized voice stated.

The man took off the headset and gently set in down on the desk before him. "Jean, prep the Blackbird."

The red-head behind him looked a little surprised. "Just me, Professor? Why not all of us?" she asked.

"Because I think that you have the best chance of connecting with this girl," he told her confidently.

"Ach…I hope so… But how are we handling the other kid Cerebro spied out—the one in the foster home?"

"Yes, Lance Alvers—I'll worry about that. I think it would be best if you just keep you focus on Kitty's parents. After all, you'll be like a model of what we're offering them. No pressure."

Jean laughed. "Yeah, no pressure," she said sarcastically. "I think I would have preferred my midterm…"

"Don't worry, you'll do fine," Professor Xavier told her, smiling. And with that, they headed towards the hangar.

Little did they know that there was someone else in the room. A mouse scurried outside. Once safely outside the gates of the Institute and out of sight, the mouse morphed into the silhouette of a woman.

She laughed. "You may have a head start on the girl, Charles, but I'll beat you to Mr. Alvers." A malicious smile found its way onto her features.

* * *

Mrs. Pryde sat in her kitchen, eating her lunch, thinking about what had happened earlier that day.

All she had ever wanted was a child, someone to take care of, to nurture, to watch grow, and naturally, when she found out she couldn't _have_ children she had been very depressed.

Then Arthur had looked up all the information about the orphanage and told her about it and she had been so excited! And when she had first seen Kitty, with her big, blue eyes, her heart-warming smile and gorgeous brown hair, she had felt so utterly content knowing that she was going to be her mother!

And now, her heart was breaking as she had watched Kitty leave this morning knowing that her little girl, her baby, was loathing herself, blaming herself, for simply being different. She felt so helpless, not being able to make her daughter smile, not being able to make her understand that she and Arthur loved her no matter what!

Mrs. Pryde's reminiscing was interrupted by the doorbell. She blinked quickly, and then turned to look at the clock. It was 3:30…_That's odd,_ she thought. _I wasn't expecting any company…_

She set her coffee down on the table and answered the door. "Yes?" She was slightly confused—she had never seen these people before…There was a bald elderly man in a wheel chair, and next to him a tall redhead stood smiling.

"Good afternoon," the man said. "Are you Mrs. Pryde?"

"Yes... How may I help you?" she asked, more than a little confused with what these strange looking people were doing at her house.

Arthur came out of his office. "Who's there, honey?"

"Please, may we come in for a moment? We'll answer all you questions and anything you need—" the redhead spoke.

"Miss, you can talk to us out here," the man Jean assumed to be Kitty's father came up behind Mrs. Pryde.

"Very well," the man said, not looking taken aback in the slightest. "I'm Professor Charles Xavier and I run a special boarding school in Bayville, New York. This is Jean Grey, a student of mine-" he gestured to the girl at his side. "We wished to speak to you about Kitty and her situation. I think you have realized Kitty is going through a very _unique_ transition right now. We just want to help her through it-"

"Look, sir, that's none of your business-" Kitty's father started.

"Please, just give us a chance," Jean said. "The Professor can help Kitty control her abilities so she can be a normal teenager; at least as close as we can get to being normal…" she added as an after thought.

Mr. Pryde looked ready to close the door in their face, but Mrs. Pryde hesitated. "Maybe we should let Kitty decide… She should be getting home soon."

Her husband looked at her oddly, silently questioning her. She looked away. Even she wasn't sure why she had said it.

* * *

The woman known as Mystique was on yet another of her 'recruiting' missions. She was in Chicago, looking for the teenager named Lance Alvers.

According to what she had overheard from Xavier, he was living here in a foster home. He had been expelled from his current high school, for breaking into an administrative office to steal test answers. _This is almost too easy._

Before emerging from the shadows where she had been watching him, she morphed into Raven Darkholme. Lance was sitting alone on a hill.

"I'd say you've blown your chances at this school," she remarked.

"And you are?" he snapped.

"Your new advisor. I've made an opening for you at Bayville High School." Having said this, she morphed into her natural blue form. The boy looked taken aback for a moment but soon recovered. "I have much to teach you, my young Avalanche," she smirked.

* * *

Kitty was upstairs in her room, packing. When she had gotten home exactly a week ago, her parents and two strangers had been sitting in the living room. Her parents had looked sullen.

"Is everything all right?" she had asked them. Then they explained who the man was, and now she was going to live with them. She didn't want to leave her parents, her home, but she really wanted to learn how to get her powers under control. She just wanted to be _normal_.

All her life, people had always treated her differently once they found out she was adopted; they always felt sorry for her. Now, with this new 'gift' surfacing, she was sure that people would treat her differently, but not with pity.

Kitty sighed. The older girl, Jean, seemed nice enough, so she was hoping that the other kids at Professor Xavier's 'school' were as kind. _I wonder what kind of powers they'll have_.

Once she had packed her vitals (a couple of outfits, pajamas, her laptop, and basic hygiene products—she could buy more stuff once she got settled in) she went back downstairs.

Her father and Professor Xavier were discussing something or other about the Institute and Jean was reassuring her mother, who was more than a little nervous about sending her daughter all the way to Bayville. She had been like that all week.

The conversations stopped when she reentered the room.

"Do you have everything you'll need?" Jean asked her.

"Yeah."

"Okay then. We'll just wait for you by the jet in the clearing."

Kitty smiled weakly. "Thanks, Jean," she said as the Professor and Jean left the house. They had arrived back at her home to pick her up an hour or two ago, and she now had all of her stuff together and it was time to leave.

"Well, I guess this is it," she said softly as she turned to her parents. "I'm—" she sniffed. "I'm really going to miss you mom, dad…" she was trying not to cry, trying to be strong. After all, she didn't want them to cry either. "I really love you guys," she said as she moved to hug her mom.

"We love you too, Kitty," her mom managed to get out before breaking onto sobs. "Just—please, be careful, and don't—don't get into trouble, okay?" she smiled to lighten her mood.

"Don't worry Mom, I won't. I'll email you and Dad every day, okay?" She looked at her dad.

"Okay, honey," he said. "Now go and catch up to them, you don't want to keep them waiting," he said and cracked a grin.

"Okay, Dad," Kitty couldn't help but grin, too, as she hugged her dad. She finally broke away and walked to the door. "Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad! I'll miss you!" she called form outside. Then she ran off towards Jean and the Professor.

* * *

One Week Previous

A scruffy teenage boy sat by the window of an ancient looking boarding house. His eyes were yellowish and his skin had a mild green tint to it. It didn't seem like he bathed much. He had gone over to the window when he had seen a sleek, black car pull up in front of the old house, which seemed to be collapsing.

"Hey, yo," he shouted to the other room. "Do ya think it's the boss lady?"

What appeared to be a white blur zipped over to him. When the figure became clear, a skinny, pale boy with white hair was visible. "Gee, Toad," he said to the first boy. "How many people do you know with nice cars like that would actually stop in front of this dump?" he asked him, his voice dripping in sarcasm.

"Shut up, Pietro," Toad retorted, glaring.

At that moment, a huge guy with blond hair and a Mohawk walked in. "I dunno, Pietro," he said, scratching his head. "How many do we know?"

Pietro rolled his eyes. How _he_, Pietro, God's gift to the world, ended up living with these losers, he did not know. It was Mystiques fault, he supposed. After all, she did recruit them. "Never mind, Freddy. Just go back to watching TV." he said as if speaking with a child.

"Okay…" and with that Fred walked back into their pathetic excuse of a living room and settled down on the couch which was littered with stains and holes.

"I'm with him, yo," Toad said as he hopped off to join Fred on the sofa.

Pietro stayed put and watched as Mystique got out with some guy he had never seen before. _Oh great_, he thought, _another idiot to add to the collection._ He turned from the window and went to the living room to watch TV with Fred and Toad.

* * *

A/N: So how was it? I'm sorry it took so long, but at least it's a bit longer than most of my chapters…Please review, and thanks for reading! 


	5. The Ghosts of You and Me

**Important Notice: I am currently re-writing all of the chapters in this story, because, looking back, I have a lot of plot holes and my writing is pretty weak at some parts. Please bear with me I would still appreciate feedback on if you like the new version of the chapters and if it makes more sense. It would suck to rewrite everything and then have it be worse than before. Thanks! You guys are awesome  
**

**I also want to apologize for the lack of updates. I have no excuse. I'm just an awful person I hope I haven't lost too many of you. For those of you still reading, you are the BEST and I love you to pieces!**

A/U: Lance Alvers was orphaned when he was 7 and sent to an orphanage. There he met Katherine Pryde, a fellow orphan at only 5 years old. Ten years later, they meet again, but this time on opposing teams.

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men, and I am not making any money off of this.

A/N: I think I may have fixed my timeline by having Lance arriving in Bayville a week earlier than Kitty. Let us hope everything works out…

* * *

**The Ghosts of You and Me**

Kitty stared in awe as she stepped into the mansion for the first time. "Wow…"

The Professor chuckled. "Come this way, I'll introduce you to your fellow house-mates." Kitty eagerly followed him down the hall.

"Down there is the rec room, where the students can study, relax, or just 'hang out'," he told her. "If you'll look over there, that door leads to the kitchen. Down the hall is my office, and I'll get one of the others to give you a tour, once I introduce them."

Kitty merely stood there with her mouth and eyes open wide, taking everything in, nodding. Sure, her house in Illinois was nice, but _this_—this place was huge!

"I believe they are all in the rec room. Let us go check, shall we?" he smiled warmly as Kitty said nothing, still looking around in wonder, trying to memorize every painting and artifact all at once. Upon entering the rec room Kitty saw a big screen TV, a cozy looking couch in front of it, a foosball table and much, much more.

On the couch, watching TV were two boys. One was black with out-of-place bleached hair, and the other was blue and furry. _Blue and furry?_ Kitty did a double take.

"Kitty, that is Evan," he pointed at the black kid with bleached hair, who sat up and waved in return.

"Hey," he said.

"And next to him is—" the Professor was interrupted as the blue boy disappeared in a puff of smoke. He seemed unsurprised, if not amused by this, but Kitty yelped.

"Where'd he go? What happened to him?"

The she heard a _bamf_ and something grabbed her shoulder from behind.

"Hello Kitty! I'm Kurt Vagner!" he said cheerfully. He _loved_ meeting new people. It's what he lived for.

Kitty's reaction was less than encouraging. She screamed.

"Let go of me, you—" but she stopped herself before she finished her sentence.

Kurt stepped back, stunned.

"I'm—I'm sorry," she said, looking away, embarrassed and ashamed of her actions. "You snuck up on me… I didn't mean anything by it, I just—"

"It's okay…" he said, slightly hurt. "Professor, I'm going to get something to eat, jah?"

Professor Xavier nodded.

"I'm really sorry about that, I didn't mean to, he just scared me," Kitty said to the Professor.

"It's alright, Kitty. Most people are startled by Kurt's appearance upon first meeting him."

Kitty's face reddened with embarrassment.

"This is Scott," he continued, gesturing to an older boy sitting at a table next to Jean.

"Hi," he said, giving her a welcoming smile.

"You've already met Jean—"

Jean perked up at the mention of her name and waved, then returned to studying with Scott.

"—and this is Rogue."

Towards the back of the room, in a secluded corner, a girl was laying on an armchair, reading.

_Whoa_… This girl was _scary_ _looking_. She wore all dark colors, and had on heavy make up. A look of disinterest was on her face when she looked up. "Hi," was all she said in her faint Southern drawl before returning to her book.

_Talk about rude…_

The Professor, having heard this, turned away from Rogue. "You'll have to excuse her behavior—she's just recently moved in and is still a little bitter over her mutation. She's been having…trust issues lately, so I hope you don't judge her character right now. She really is a nice girl."

"…okay…" _Right. Nice…_

Having said this, he turned around again to address Rogue. "Rogue, will you show Kitty to her room?"

Rogue grumbled something under her breath as she got up and put her book on the arm chair.

"Follow me," she said, and walked towards the stairs.

Kitty grabbed her duffel bag and ran after her. They climbed up the stairs and walked down the hall in an awkward silence. Finally, Rogue stopped in front of an open door and gestured inside. "This is it," she said. "That's mah bed, an' here's yours."

Kitty walked inside, slightly intimidated by the older girl's attitude. She set her duffel bag down on her new bed and began to unpack, putting her clothes in drawers by her bed in silence.

"Need help?" Rogue asked. Kitty jumped a little, not expecting her to say anything.

"Umm…sure," she said, and smiled.

Rogue walked over and helped her put her clothes away while Kitty set up her laptop on a near by desk.

"So how'd you end up here?" Kitty asked trying to make conversation.

"Ah…well it's a long story…Ah was livin' with the Brotherhood up until about three days ago, and—" she paused at Kitty's look of confusion.

"The Brotherhood?"

"They're another group of mutants, but they don't agree with Professor Xavier's ideals."

"Oh…" Kitty nodded and pretended to understand.

"Their leader, Mystique, tricked me into joinin' them, but when she tried to kill Scott and Ah found out the truth about her, Ah came here."

"…wow…that must have been…" Kitty trailed off, not being able to find a word to express her thought.

"Don't worry about it."

Silence.

"So what's your mutation?" Rogue asked.

"I can, um, walk through solid things…I think the Professor said something like 'corporal intangibility' but I'm not sure…"

"Cool."

"What's yours?"

Rogue stiffened. "Absorbtion. If Ah touch anyone, skin to skin, Ah'll suck away their life force: their memories, and if they're mutants, Ah'll get their powers for a little while, but Ah can't control it…"

"So you can't touch anyone?" Kitty asked wide-eyed.

"Not without absorbing them."

So that was why she was so bitter… It also explained her clothes some what—the sheer long sleeved green shirt had seemed a little odd in the middle of the summer. Kitty felt bad for having judged her by the way she looked so quickly. She was going to have to apologize to Kurt, too. She had been really rude to him, also.

_You'd think that finding out I'm a mutant would make me more open-minded and sympathetic to other people…_

"So what was the Brotherhood like?" Kitty asked, trying to change the subject.

Rogue scoffed. "They're a bunch a' slobs."

Kitty laughed.

"Toad, who's frog-like—green skin an' long tongue included—bathes about once a month. Fred's got invulnerable skin and'll eat anythin' that's remotely edible. Pietro's got super speed and for the most part, is a narcicist. And then there's Lance—he causes earthquakes, and he tries to keep them all in order."

Kitty laughed at each of their descriptions, but when Rogue said 'Lance' she stopped. "Lance?" she asked, more to herself than Rogue.

She received a puzzled stare. "Yeah… he got in a week ago."

"I've heard that name before…"

"Well, it's not like it's an uncommon name…"

"I know…but… I think I used to _know_ someone named Lance…"

More silence.

"Whatever, let's go downstairs," Kitty said.

"Sure."

* * *

"Hey, guys! I'm leaving in five!" Lance called to the upstairs of the Brotherhood Boarding House. He grabbed the keys to the jeep Mystique had given him. It was amazing how much he babysat them, and he had only been there a week!

Five minutes passed and no one came down. Lance sighed. "Okay, I'm out!"

No answer.

"Okay then…" he said to himself.

While he was driving to Bayville High, he thought about the downward spiral his life had been taking since the day he was born.

He had been born in the slums of Chicago; his room had been a _closet_, for Christ's sake! His dad was an alcoholic; he remembered vividly how he would give his mother those terrible beatings. Then that night…that awful night that had been painfully etched into his memory…

Then Sally had brought him to the orphanage and he had met Kitty. He would never forget her. The month that they had been together at the orphanage had truly been the happiest month of his life. He remembered the way she would cuddle with him and when they would stay up late talking. The day she left was when he first discovered his mutant abilities.

Once he had turned 10, he was put into foster home after foster home. He never stayed at one house too long. They could never deal with all of his disciplinary problems and his natural rebelliousness.

And every time Sally would come to get him and sigh. "What am I going to do with you Lance? What did you do this time?"

When he turned 15, his mother, who was still in a psychiatric ward, grew incurably ill. Sally had driven him to the hospital where she was being held and he visited her for the last time.

He would never forget that day either.

She hadn't recognized him. His own _mother_ recalled absolutely _nothing_ about him. She didn't even acknowledge him when he tried to speak to her, to say good bye. She babbled on and on about the crimson in the carpet, and how the stain would never come out, and then would scratch at her hands, an eerie echo of Lady Macbeth attempting to wash blood off of her hands that wasn't there.

He had cried that day. He had been so angry at everyone, at everything. His father, that bastard, for doing this to both of them, his mother for not even recognizing him when she said she'd loved him more than _life itself_, Kitty for leaving him to his cruel fate, and himself for letting it all happen, for not _doing_ anything.

But Sally had been there. She had let him cry on her shoulder as she patted his back lovingly. She had always been there for him. She was his pillar of strength.

About a month later, when Sally called him to tell him that she had died, all of his hope died along with her. He just gave up.

He would get into even more trouble just to get his mind off of things. His latest scheme had been to steal and then sell the answers to the final exams of several classes, but that had gotten him expelled and then Mystique had showed up, and here he was.

He didn't really feel bad at all about leaving. He didn't give a shit about his latest foster family. That pretentious woman and her perfect son could think him dead for all he cared. There was nothing to keep him in Chicago. Once, long ago, he'd had a reason, but she'd left him like the rest of them.

_Not that it was her fault…She didn't do it on purpose…_

The one thing he did feel bad about was not being able to say goodbye to Sally. He supposed he'd call her someday, thank her for all that she had done for him, even if it had never really worked out. She had good intentions. And she was the only person in the entire state of Illinois that he had ever really respected or listened to. He would miss her, and he was sure she would miss him. He really _did_ have to call her. For closure. He owed it to her.

Lance pulled into the parking lot and just sat in his jeep since the bell hadn't rung yet. Ten minutes later, Toad and Fred showed up. Both of them were breathing heavy.

"Yo! Why didn't you wait for us?" Toad gasped, once he managed to regain his breath.

"I told you guys I was leaving," Lance said, holding in a laugh at the thought of Fred running.

"You could have at least waited five minutes—you got here early after all, yo," Toad said.

"Yeah—we had to walk all the way here!" Fred cried indignantly.

"You _walked_?"

"Yeah, it's not like we had a _car_ or anything," Toad said, resentfully.

Lance laughed. They had _completely_ missed his point.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing," he replied, grinning.

Toad opened his mouth to say something, but just then, the bell rang.

"Come on, let's get going," Lance said, getting out of his jeep.

* * *

First period came and went. Lance had been held after class by a disgruntled teacher for making disruptive comments during lecture notes, and now had only two minutes to get to his next class on the other side of the building.

"Shit," he murmured to himself as he shoved his way through hordes of people, only to be met with more. Just as he was approaching his locker he ran into someone, knocking them down.

"What the—" the girl, who was now on the floor, complained.

"Sorry," Lance said, not really meaning it. He stuck out a hand anyway, to help her up.

Lance looked her over as she finally got to her feet. She was a petite girl, with long brown hair and clear blue eyes. Something in Lance's brain clicked. It was like seeing a ghost. She looked like an older version of Kitty Hail!

The girl cleared her throat. "If you're done staring at me now, I'd like to have my hand back…" But she had been staring at him, too. His face seemed so _familiar_, but she couldn't place it! It was very frustrating, to say the least.

"Oh, right… Sorry about that…"

"Sure," she said, and began to walk away.

And that's when he heard it.

"Hey, Kitty! Wait up!" Rogue, who had left the Brotherhood a couple days after he had joined, was calling the girl he had bumped into.

_It can't be!_ _Kitty?_

Wait, he reasoned with himself. There were plenty of girls who went by Kitty…_right_? How could he be sure that this was her? _His_ Kitty.

_Snap out of it! It has to be her, not many people go by Kitty, and she looked exactly her…_

"Hey, Kitty! Wait!" But by the time he said this, she was already gone. He sighed. He'd just have to find her after school. He _had_ to find out if she was Kitty Hail.

* * *

A/N: Review! 


	6. Obligation

**Important Notice: I am currently re-writing all of the chapters in this story, because, looking back, I have a lot of plot holes and my writing is pretty weak at some parts. Please bear with me I would still appreciate feedback on if you like the new version of the chapters and if it makes more sense. It would suck to rewrite everything and then have it be worse than before. Thanks! You guys are awesome  
**

**I also want to apologize for the lack of updates. I have no excuse. I'm just an awful person I hope I haven't lost too many of you. For those of you still reading, you are the BEST and I love you to pieces!**

A/U: Lance Alvers was orphaned when he was 7 and sent to an orphanage. There he met Katherine Pryde, a fellow orphan at only 5 years old. Ten years later, they meet again, but this time on opposing teams.

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men, and I am not making any money off of this.

A/N: I think I may have fixed my timeline by having Lance arriving in Bayville a week earlier than Kitty. Let us hope everything works out…

* * *

**Obligation**

The 2nd period bell had rung and Lance was still in the hall, rushing to his next class. He had been so distracted by that girl that he had lost track of time and now he was late to Chemistry.

_Ah… the joys of Science. Not._

"Ah, Mr. Alvers, nice of you to join us," the teacher said from the head of the class.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly, shrugging his shoulders. How was it that every single teacher he'd ever had had used that line at _least_ once? Was there some sort of Teacher Handbook telling them what to say for every situation? _Whatever_…

"If you'll sit down-"

Lance took the hint.

"-I'll introduce our newest student. This is Katherine-"

"Kitty," the girl corrected.

Mrs. Bramer smiled. "This is Kitty Pryde, who has transferred into this class from Biology. I'm sure you'll help her out with using the equipment and such. Kitty, you can take a seat at this table in front, next to Lance."

Lance and Kitty's eyes locked briefly but she looked away as she gathered up her binder and sat down next to him.

With that Mrs. Bramer began her lesson. Something about balancing chemical equations and the like, but Lance wasn't paying attention. He was busy thinking.

_Pryde. I could have sworn that was their name. Mr. and Mrs. Pryde. It all fits-Kitty Pryde! What more proof do I need?_

_Yes, but she's shown no signs of recognizing me now, has she?_ That little voice taunted in the back of his mind.

_Yes she has!_ _When our eyes locked in the hall and just now! That's gotta be something.  
_  
He decided to try and talk to her.

"Hey," he whispered to her, nudging her elbow.

She looked over to him, obviously irritated. "_What_?" she hissed between her teeth.

_Okay. You've got her attention-now what to say?  
_  
"Where'd you come up with Kitty as a nickname for Katherine?" he asked, figuring a direct approach was as good as any.

Kitty, who had mistaken his tone as mocking, snapped at him. "Are you _always_ such a jerk?"

_Great going, Alvers-you've barely talked to her and she's already pissed off at you._

"_No_-I really want to know," he said quickly.

Kitty's face clouded momentarily, and she looked at him uncertainly. Then she smiled as if in some far away dream land as she remembered her first day at that Chicago orphanage.

"When I was little, a friend of mine at the orphanage started calling me that." She trailed off. _What was his name?_ She could barely even picture him anymore!

Lance's heart leapt when he heard this. _An orphanage!_ "You-you were adopted?" he whispered excitedly.

"Yeah."

_What is _with_ this guy?_

"What city were you-"

Lance was interrupted by Mrs. Bramer. "Lance, Kitty-is there something you would like to share with me?" she waited expectantly.

_Again with the lines…_

Kitty threw Lance a glare. "No, sorry," she said apologetically, but Mrs. Bramer shook her head disapprovingly.

"That will be your only warning-both of you."

"Yes ma'am," they grumbled simultaneously.

Satisfied, she turned her back on them and continued her lesson.

At once Lance elbowed Kitty, who turned to face him, annoyance and dislike showing on her face.

"What orphanage did you stay at?" he persisted.

"What is _wrong_ with you? She just told us to be quiet! Just leave me _alone_!" she hissed.

"No-_please_. Just tell me and I swear I won't bother you again!" Lance pleaded.

"Why do you even _care_?"

"Mr. Alvers! Ms. Pryde! I just asked you to stop talking-you both have detention after school."

"What! But I-" Kitty fell quiet, knowing arguing would do her no good, if not make her plight worse. She grumbled to herself a little and settled back into her chair.

Lance, on the other hand, could care less. He was used to getting in trouble-detention, suspension, whatever. It was all the same.

He looked at this as an opportunity to ask Kitty what orphanage she had been adopted from. Had it been St. Charles' in Chicago?

Both of them lapsed into silence and when the bell rang, they gathered their things and left, all the while, Kitty avoided eye contact.

* * *

During lunch Kitty went to sit with Scott, Jean, Kurt, Evan, and Rogue. She abjectly plopped into her chair and proceeded to stare at Jean's lunch tray.

"Are you gonna eat anythin'?" Rogue asked her.

"No. I'm not hungry," she replied, her voice monotone.

"Hey-you okay?" Scott questioned.

"Just fine," she snapped back, sarcasm dripping in her voice.

"Right," he replied, looking slightly put out.

"What's wrong?" Rogue asked her, tired of her just sitting there.

"I've got detention after school," she said pouting, still slouching in her chair.

"_Detention_!" Kurt asked in disbelief. "_You_ got detention!"

"Yeah," she replied angrily with her arms crossed.

"_Why_?" Evan asked, trying to contain laughter. Kitty just didn't seem the type to wind up in detention.

"Because this _stupid guy_ next to me wouldn't shut up so the teacher gave us both detention."

"Ouch."

"Yeah. So I'll be needing a ride home afterwards," she told them, Scott in particular.

"Sure, what time should I pick you up?"

"I think Mrs. Bramer said until 4:30, so that would be good."

"'Kay."

Meanwhile, in a far corner of the cafeteria, the Brotherhood of Mutants was sitting at a table eating lunch. Fred had just finished his seventh tray of questionable looking cafeteria food including the oh-so-classic mystery meat, a scoop of watery looking mashed potatoes, some diced apples with entirely too much cinnamon on them, and a carton of expired milk.

"Yo, do you _have_ to eat the mashed potatoes? They're just plain sick looking!" Todd told his friend.

"_This_ coming from the guy who bathes once a month and enjoys eating _flies_ for midday snacks," Pietro supplied from his seat. He looked very restless. "Alright, that's it," he said after Fred's not-so-bright response to Todd's comment (Whaddaya mean? They look fine to me.) "I'm gonna go see what Debbie and Sarah are doing. Catch ya later." And with that he sped off.

Lance had been strangely quiet, as he normally had some sarcastic or degrading comment to add when Pietro mentioned his 'lady friends,' but now he sat in a contemplative silence.

"Lance, what's up, yo?" called Todd waving his hand around in front of Lance's face.

"Wha-huh?" Lance came back to reality.

"You've been really quiet, yo. It's kind of creepy."

"Oh, I was just thinking," he replied nonchalantly.

"Okay," Freddy answered, happily munching on what Lance thought was a brownie.

"Oh-hey-guys, I just remembered. You're gonna have to get your own ride back to the Boarding House. I've got detention till 4:00."

"So do we-but till 4:30. Fred an' me got caught getting change from a vending machine."

"Huh?" Lance asked, giving a great impression of Fred.

"The coke machine, yo. If you punch it in the right spot, it'll spit change out."

"Right. I'll have to remember that." Lance said.

"Well, I'd better go, considering I don't wanna be late for my next class, too."

"But, yo-the bell hasn't-"

Cue the bells.

"Oh. Alright then. Let's go Fred." Todd began to walk off. "Fred?" he turned around. Fred was taking one last bite of the watery mashed potatoes and then stood sadly, looking heartbroken when he threw the rest of the uneaten cafeteria food on his tray away.

"Comin,'" he said, and lumbered off to follow Todd.

* * *

That afternoon, after the final bell had rung, Lance made his way to the Chemistry lab where Mrs. Bramer would keep himself and Kitty company for the next hour. He sighed. Well, maybe-if he was lucky-Mrs. Bramer wouldn't sit and watch them like a hawk, and he might be able to pass a note to Kitty, asking her about her orphanage. At this point, he knew Kitty probably thought he was a lunatic, but it would all be worth it if he could just find out if she was Kitty Hail—his Kitty.

_Oh, god! I must be going soft._ He shuddered at the possibility. Lance Alvers does NOT go _gaga_ over some little girl he used to know, he reminded himself, but then again, this wasn't just some ordinary little girl.

This was _Kitty_, who had given him a purpose at the orphanage when he had lost everything that had ever been considered normal to him. _Kitty_, who had been afraid of the late night thunderstorms in the Windy City.

_Damn, I didn't realize how good I had it, getting such pretty girls to crawl into my bed._ He chuckled lightly at the thought, and went to sit down at a table.

He sat there, bored already, for ten minutes, tapping his pencil, until Kitty appeared in the door way.

Mrs. Bramer nodded her head to acknowledge her presence, and Kitty sat down at a table on the opposite side of the room from Lance, glaring at him. He merely grinned sheepishly in return and shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "What can ya do?"

She narrowed her eyes at him and pulled out a math book from her backpack and began working.

Lance went back to tapping his pencil.

_Tap, tap, tap._

_Tap, tap, tap._

_Tap, tap, tap, tap-_

Kitty slammed her book shut. "Will you please stop tapping!"

"Sorry," Lance grinned.

He would have said more but at the moment, Mrs. Bramer shushed them and told them that this was detention. They were NOT supposed to talk. Yet again, Kitty threw Lance a dirty look. Mrs. Bramer went back to grading papers.

Lance sat in his seat like a good boy for a while, but it didn't suit him well. He grabbed his pencil and hastily scrawled out something on a piece of paper from his notebook. He silently ripped it out, crumpled it up, and, after checking that Mrs. Bramer wasn't watching, chucked the note across the room. It landed right on top of the worksheet Kitty was working on.

He grinned to himself. _Perfect aim_.

Kitty looked at the wad of paper, then at him and rolled her eyes, exasperated. _Some people just don't know when to quit!_ She was about to open her mouth to yell at him, but her shot her a pleading look, silently begging her to just open the piece of paper.

"Fine!" she muttered to herself, thoroughly annoyed at him.

She smoothed out the paper and read it. She immediately looked at him as though he were mental.

_What is this guy's _deal

"Just answer me, please!" he mouthed.

Kitty finally gave in, hoping that if she told him this he would leave her alone! She scribbled something down, wadded the paper up again and threw it at Lance. She smirked with satisfaction when the paper hit him square on the jaw before he could move.

Lance opened the piece of paper in trembling hands under the table. Under his note-What orphanage?-Kitty had written: _St. Charles Orphanage in Chicago. I told you, now please leave me alone!  
_  
Lance dropped the note.

That was it! It was _her_! He had finally found Kitty again, after all those years. He was in shock.

_I guess I wasn't really expecting it was possible for it to really be her._

He was filled with emotion, with happiness. And yet he couldn't bring himself to speak. Kitty had gone to work again, satisfied that he would no long bother her.

_Oh well, it doesn't matter, I'm gonna talk to her after detention whether she wants to listen or not.  
_  
About fifteen minutes later, the clock hit 4:00. "Okay," said Mrs. Bramer. "You may both leave, but from now on, please do NOT talk while I am teaching class."

They both muttered some incoherent sign of comprehension and hurried out of the classroom.

"Hey Kitty," Lance said, trying to keep from sounding so excited that he might wet himself.

"_What_?" she moaned. "I told you already-leave me alone!"

"No it's not that. It's just-when you were at the orphanage, that boy, the one who gave you your nickname… What was his name?" he said timidly.

"His name?" Kitty asked, surprised by this question. "I-I don't remember…It started with an L, I think."

"Like Lance?" he said, smiling. Her face adopted a look of disbelief.

"_Yeah_! That was it! Lance! Lance-"

"Lance Alvers?"

"_Lance Alvers_! Lance Alvers. Oh my god! _Lance_! _Is it really you_!"

"The one and only," he smiled, but it was nothing compared to what he felt inside. He had never been so happy. He felt so fulfilled, as though he had regained a missing arm or leg.

"Oh my _god_!" she screamed as she threw her arms around him and stood on her tip toes to pull him into a hug. "I missed you so much!" she whispered, her eyes becoming watery.

"I missed you too," Lance replied, at first a little shocked by Kitty's sudden actions, but now hugging her back just as tightly. "I thought I was never gonna see you again. At the orphanage, they told me that I should be happy for you because you had a family, but I couldn't. I was so depressed. And when I saw you in the hall it was like seeing a ghost, and I had to find out if it was you," he finished.

"I know! You looked so familiar, too. But I couldn't remember who it was you looked like," she said. "I'm sorry I was so rude. I guess the things you were asking me…I didn't want to remember the answers, 'cause then I would remember the day I left…and that—that was awful. There was even an earthquake right after I left! It was as if we weren't supposed to be separated." Kitty released him and smiled, and Lance started laughing lightly.

"What?" Kitty said playfully, thinking he was laughing at her.

"That earthquake—I caused it. It was me...I'm a mutant. When you left, my abilities surfaced." Lance hoped she wouldn't care he was a mutant—he hadn't meant to say that, but it had just slipped out before he could think about what he was saying.

She stared at him in awe. "Really? You—you caused it? How'd it happen?"

"Well, I was in the dormitory all alone and very depressed, thinking, and then…I don't know." Lance got a far away look on his face. "Things started shaking and falling off dressers, and my eyes had rolled to the back of my head and then all of a sudden I had this weird feeling… like that everything was fine. That everything would be okay. The next thing I knew, Greg had run into the room, yelling at me to take cover—that there was an earthquake, and then everything just stopped. That peaceful feeling vanished, and I felt dizzy, and I had a searing pain right behind my eyes and in the back of my head, and then everything just sort of…went black," he concluded his tale.

"Wow..." she trailed off, and there was an awkward silence.

"Does it…bother you that I'm a mutant?" he said, mistaking her silence for disgust.

"No—_no_! Not at all! I was just thinking how odd this is…I'm a mutant too, and we both met before we were mutants, and we both sort of triggered each others mutation," she told him.

"What? You're a mutant, too! What's you're power...and how did _I_ trigger it?" Lance asked her, now slightly confused.

"Yeah—I can walk through walls and stuff. The Professor calls it _corporal intangibility_, or something. I was asleep one night and I had this weird dream about someone that I couldn't remember—turns out it was you—and then I felt like I was falling and falling and when I opened my eyes I was in the basement and I started screaming. It was pretty freaky."

"Whoa. That's really weird." he said.

_The Professor?_

They finally reached the parking lot where Lance's faithful jeep was parked. Kitty scanned the lot and then frowned.

_Oh, great! I told Scott to pick me up at 4:30 instead of 4:00! Now I get to just sit here all alone for half an hour! Ugh!  
_  
"What's wrong?" Lance asked her as she sat down on the curb.

"Nothing, really, I just told Scott to pick me up at 4:30 because I thought that's when Mrs. Bramer said we'd get out of detention."

"Oh…Well if you want I could give you a ride home. You just tell me where you live and we'll be good to go."

Kitty perked right up at his words. "Seriously! That would be _SO_ great! I just hope we get there before Scott comes to get me—he probably wouldn't enjoy having to drive up here for nothing," she smiled and stood up as Lance unlooked his jeep. He opened the passenger seat door and gestured her in.

"After you, _mademoiselle_," he mocked. Once they were both in, Lance started the car and they drove out of the parking lot, Kitty instructing him on where the Institute was.

* * *

Scott and Jean were in the kitchen talking and doing their homework. Scott was disappointed when Jean reminded him at 4:15 that he had to go pick up Kitty. _Of all the days to get detention…_ He headed outside and got in his car and headed to Bayville High.

When he got there about five minutes later he found that the parking lot where Kitty had said she would be was completely empty. He waited patiently. _I guess she's just running late._

Ten minutes later the doors opened. _Finally!_

But instead of Kitty stepping through the doors, he saw two members of the Brotherhood: Fred, also known as the Blob, and Todd, also known as Toad.

_Great! Just great! Now I'm going to have to ask them if they know where  
she is! Well, here goes nothing.  
_  
"Hey! Todd! Fred!"

They looked over in his direction and recognized him at once. "What do you want X-Geek?" Todd called back, using Pietro's term of endearment.

"Look can you just help me out real quick—have you seen a friend of mine—Kitty?"

"Uh...I don't think so… Right Todd?"

"Yeah—we haven't seen anyone for the past hour and a half. We're the last students here."

"Oh." Then where was she? Scott drove away from them, not wanting to talk to them any longer than he had to. Hopefully Lance wasn't around or else he'd seriously get irritated. When he found Kitty he was going to give her a long, long lecture…

* * *

A/N: Review! 


	7. Hit the Floor

**Important Notice: I am currently re-writing all of the chapters in this story, because, looking back, I have a lot of plot holes and my writing is pretty weak at some parts. Please bear with me I would still appreciate feedback on if you like the new version of the chapters and if it makes more sense. It would suck to rewrite everything and then have it be worse than before. Thanks! You guys are awesome **

**I also want to apologize for the lack of updates. I have no excuse. I'm just an awful person  I hope I haven't lost too many of you. For those of you still reading, you are the BEST and I love you to pieces!**

A/U: Lance Alvers was orphaned when he was 7 and sent to an orphanage. There he met Katherine Pryde, a fellow orphan at only 5 years old. Ten years later, they meet again, but this time on opposing teams.

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men, and I am not making any money off of this.

A/N: I think I may have fixed my timeline by having Lance arriving in Bayville a week earlier than Kitty. Let us hope everything works out…

* * *

**Hit the Floor**

After ten minutes of driving around aimlessly, Kitty finally spotted a familiar landmark.

"Oh! Right there! Turn left at that gas station, and then keep going until you get to a big mansion," Kitty exclaimed, proud that she had finally figured out how to get from Bayville High to Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters. Her expression quickly became sheepish when she remembered how long it had taken her to figure it out. She had told Lance to turn around at least seven times.

"Sorry it took me so long...heh...Since I just moved here and all, and Scott normally drives..." she reddened.

Lance was beginning to wonder about this 'Scott' she kept mentioning. _Please, anyone but that ass wipe, Summers_, he prayed silently.

"It's not a problem," he assured her. "Really."

Kitty broke out into a grin. "Thanks." She turned her eyes to the road. "That's it, right there." Her smile lessened when she saw Scott standing at the gate with a less than happy expression on his face. _Uh oh..._ She took a deep breath to gather her thoughts and explain herself as she got out of the passenger's seat and walked towards him, but Scott cut her off.

"Whose Jeep is that?" he said, sounding apprehensive. Kitty smiled, instantly forgetting about her excuse and began explaining the situation to Scott.

"Oh, it's my friend Lance's. We meet at an—"

"Lance _Alvers_?" He said the name as if it were sour milk.

"Yeah..." she said confused. "We met when we were—" Kitty paused, seeing that Scott had only heard her "yeah" and then marched off angrily towards the Jeep. _What on Earth? What's going on?_ Kitty followed and heard Lance at Scott yelling angrily at each other.

"Just stay away from her, you hood," Scott spat at him. "She's with us, so don't even try to pull that stunt."

Lance didn't look taken aback. He looked pissed off, if anything. "_Me_? Stay away from _her_? _Please_! I met her when I was seven when we lived in Chicago, so why don't you just _back off_ and stop talking about things you obviously aren't informed about."

Kitty just stood there looking confused. "What? What's the problem?" she asked, oblivious to the dislike between the two boys.

"The problem," Scott said angrily, "is that Alvers here is with the Brotherhood. He can't be trusted!"

Lance snickered, leaning back on his Jeep, arms crossed, the very picture of a stereotypical bad boy, and Kitty just stood there sputtering. "What do you mean? Of course I can trust him! I've known Lance since I was five!"

"It's not that you can't trust me, it's that Summers doesn't like me. Feel threatened that one of your precious team mates might actually be friendly with me?"

Scott's face reddened.

"Afraid that you're losing your authority? Is that it?" Lance asked continued, thoroughly enjoying egging him on.

His adversary's face turned into one of complete loathing, which Lance returned just as quickly. Kitty interrupted their glaring contest. "Look, you guys are both my friends—can't you just get along?"

Lance snorted, and Scott looked disgusted.

"Yeah, right. Like that's gonna happen," Scott muttered. Kitty shot him a look, but Lance spoke up.

"Sorry Kitty, but what Summers over there said is true. It's next to impossible," he said.

Scott just shot him another death glare.

"Well, Kitty, I'd best be leaving about now, seeing that Summers looks about ready to piss himself." With that he gently wrapped Kitty in a quick hug (Kitty found herself blushing at this action), winked at Scott, and got into his Jeep, roaring away before Scott was able to say anything.

Scott opened and closed his mouth angrily a couple of times, looking like a fish out of water before finally turning to a semi-dazed Kitty.

"You should stay away from him. He's a bad influence and untrustworthy."

Finally, Kitty snapped out of her daydream and registered what Scott was telling her. He had some nerve...

"Look, Scott, I appreciate you trying to look out for me and all, but I can take care of myself and make my own decisions. Lance is my friend and he hasn't done anything to prove that he's a bad influence _or_ untrustworthy. If anything _you've_ shown just how immature you are, so instead of trying to get involved in my life, figure yours out first."

With that she phased through the gate and angrily walked towards the mansion, leaving Scott alone outside, not being able to grasp the concept that Kitty, the girl who had been at the mansion for the better part of a week, had just basically told him to piss off.

_What the hell is this? No one respects seniority anymore…_

He began muttering angrily to himself and punched in the security code into the number pad, and then walked through the open gate. He slammed it behind him and headed towards the front door.

* * *

Rogue looked up from her book when she saw a very pissed off Kitty storm into the rec room. She threw her backpack next to the couch and sat down with a huff.

"So...what's eatin' ya?" Rogue asked to break the awkward silence that had settled in the room. _Ah've got a feelin' that Ah'm gonna regret this later..._

"Well," she said and took a deep breath.

As she did this, Evan and Kurt (to whom she had apologized about her first reaction to him) who had been playing Game Cube, and Ms. Ororo and Mr. Logan (two of the 'care takers' at the mansion) decided it would be wise to leave, and all but fled from the room, leaving the Southern girl and Kitty alone.

Kitty exhaled and began. "You know how I got detention this afternoon?" Kitty didn't wait for an answer but simply continued. "Well it turns out that the guy who wouldn't stop talking to me was Lance Alvers. About ten years ago we met at an orphanage in Chicago and were like, best friends 'till I got adopted. Then I sort of forgot about him, but then today he kept asking me where I was adopted from and we were 'reunited.'" Kitty took a deep breath and Rogue merely nodded; a blank look on her face.

"So then he gave me a ride home, since I had told Scott the wrong time—by accident—and when we got here, Scott was waiting for me by the gate. When he saw Lance, they started arguing and he told Lance to stay away from me, and all this crap that Lance was untrustworthy and a 'bad influence' and—_ugh_! It just makes me so _mad_! I mean, who does he think he is? He doesn't want me to see my friend whom I haven't seen in _ten years_ because he has a stupid grudge and feels threatened."

It took Rogue some time to process and then react to Kitty's rave. "...So what did ya tell him?" Rogue asked, figuring Kitty better get it all out of her system or she would be hearing a lot more about how awful Scott was.

"I told him to go figure out his life before he got himself involved in mine, and then I phased through the gate, and here I am," she finished.

"Feel better?"

"Tons," Kitty suddenly smiled and scooted over on the couch. "So do you wanna play Super Smash Brothers or not?" she asked.

"Sure," was Rogue's reply as she sat on the couch, where they proceeded to attempt to virtually beat the living daylights out of each other, yelling and hollering at the TV.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the Brotherhood House, Lance was feeling pretty pleased with himself. Damn, but had he told Summers or what? He'd just gotten what had been a long time coming. His get away had been perfect (was it just him or had Kitty been blushing a little as he hugged her?), and as an added bonus, he had seen Kitty yelling at Scott in the rearview mirror of his Jeep. He sighed happily. This day couldn't get any better.

* * *

A/N: I know this chapter is a bit short, but I wanted to update since I haven't in a couple months (so sorry!) There was originally more to this chapter, but it was taking me too long to get the whole thing written, so I just cut it in half. I hope you enjoyed it, and leave me a review (constructive criticism and advice on what to do with the actual 'plot' of this story would be highly appreciated!). I'll try to update the next chapter sooner! 


	8. Modern Romance

**Important Notice: I am currently re-writing all of the chapters in this story, because, looking back, I have a lot of plot holes and my writing is pretty weak at some parts. Please bear with me I would still appreciate feedback on if you like the new version of the chapters and if it makes more sense. It would suck to rewrite everything and then have it be worse than before. Thanks! You guys are awesome **

**I also want to apologize for the lack of updates. I have no excuse. I'm just an awful person I hope I haven't lost too many of you. For those of you still reading, you are the BEST and I love you to pieces!**

A/U: Lance Alvers was orphaned when he was 7 and sent to an orphanage. There he met Katherine Pryde, a fellow orphan at only 5 years old. Ten years later, they meet again, but this time on opposing teams.

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men, and I am not making any money off of this.

A/N: I think I may have fixed my timeline by having Lance arriving in Bayville a week earlier than Kitty. Let us hope everything works out…

* * *

**Modern Romance**

The next morning at the mansion was a quieter one. Mind you, I said quiet_er_. Kurt and Evan were fighting over the last glass of milk, which they eventually knocked over and spilled on Rouge's skirt ("Ah'm gonna _KILL_ you guys!"), Jean was complaining about how the toaster didn't work, and Kitty was attempting to cook herself some eggs.

However, when Scott walked in, Kitty stiffened, and even Rogue, who had been promising Kurt and Evan brutal and untimely deaths, ("Oh, don't worry! Ah'll wait 'till _after_ your Geometry test, and then, when I get my hands on you...") closed her mouth to stare at the two.

Everyone knew that Kitty was still pissed off at Scott, and had all heard about their two team mates' fallout through some way or another—be it through Scott's indignation ("_Seriously_, Jean! Don't you think she's just a _little bit_ out of line!"), or through Kurt's excellent gossiping abilities. Either way, everyone knew about their argument, and they were all waiting to see what would happen.

"Morning..." Scott said, feeling a bit uncomfortable at the hush that had swept through the kitchen.

Everyone stole a quick glance at Kitty, who suddenly seemed very interested in her goopy eggs, and then answered a quick "Morning."

Scott sighed and headed over to Kitty. "Look, I'm sorry about yesterday, but I honestly don't trust Lance and I don't think it's a good idea for you to be hanging out with him."  
_  
_No response from Kitty. Apparently, Scott would need to switch tactics. Trying to keep his dignity would get him no where.

The rest on the team quietly shuffled out while Scott tried to reconcile himself with Kitty with the only option left—begging for forgiveness. _Screw pride—here goes nothing..._

"Okay, fine..." Scott sighed defeated. "I'll lay off, but please, promise me that you'll at least be a bit careful when he's around. Deal?"

He waited earnestly for a moment and then Kitty looked up from her eggs and all but tackled Scott in a bear hug.

"Thanks _SO_ much Scott! You really have no idea how much this means to me!" she gushed.

"Right..." Scott replied, awkwardly returning her hug, patting her back, which was quite a feat, considering she was squeezing him so hard he could hardly breathe. He was about to say something when he smelled smoke. He slowly shifted his head towards the stove.

"Uh...Kitty...Your eggs are on fire..."

"WHAT!"

* * *

The rest of the team rushed into the kitchen when they heard the scream.

_Oh god...has she murdered Scott?_

"What's goin' on?" Rogue said as she stepped in. She was greeted with a very comical sight.

The frying pan Kitty had been using was up in flames and Scott was trying to put them out using a kitchen towel, but to no avail. Then, Kitty rushed in from the pantry with a fire extinguisher (Yes, a fire extinguisher—with a house full of teenage mutants you never know when one would come in handy) and started spraying the frying pan like a mad woman. Unfortunately, Scott was still using the towel and Kitty's aim wasn't quite perfect...

"Kitty! _What the hell was that?_ Do I _look_ like a frying pan to you!" Scott managed to cough out as the first wave of flame retardant hit him in the face.

"Sorry! Oh my _God_! I'm _so_ sorry!"

"Kitty! Zhe fire!" Kurt reminded her, through his laughter.

"Right!" she said, reddening and turning her attention back to the stove. She sprayed out the flames and breathed a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, Scott was trying to get the flame retardant off his face and shirt, but wasn't having any luck. Rogue, Evan, and Jean, broke out of their stupor and joined Kurt, who was on the floor holding his stomach from laughing so hard.

Scott mumbled something angrily under his breath and left to change.

"Why didn't you just use water to put it out?" Jean panted out between laughs.

"...oh...heh..." Kitty's face quickly changed to match the color of Jean's hair. "Whoops..."

* * *

Once Scott and Rogue had changed into unsoiled/ 'un-extinguished' clothes, the students at Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters left for school, and the rest of the morning went on without a hitch.

When they arrived at Bayville High School, Jean was immediately abducted by Duncan Matthews, the quarterback on the Varsity football team, and her fellow cheerleader, Taryn Fujioka.

"Bye guys, see you later!" she called as she was led towards the massive crowd consisting of the rest of the jocks and cheerleaders.

Scott glared at Duncan's retreating back. He almost hated him as much as Alvers. _Almost..._ Funny though that Alvers had only been here about two weeks and was already competing with Duncan for the "Most Hated Person" on Scott's Shit List... Scott just didn't trust him...

Kitty and Rogue walked to the courtyard, talking, while Evan left them to see his skater friends, leaving Kurt and Scott at the car.

"Ah, another vonderful day at Bayville High," Kurt said, the humor audible in his voice.

Scott just hmphed in response.

* * *

"So did you an' Scott make nice?" Rogue asked casually as they made their way past a group of freshman girls who giggled at seeing the new girl with the resident 'Goth.'

"...yeah..." Kitty looked at her friend oddly.

"...What!"

"_Make nice_?" Kitty raised an eyebrow.

Rogue, however, saw this as no laughing matter. "Don't make fun a' the way Ah talk!" she seethed.

Kitty just laughed harder while Rogue glared. "Do you realize," she said between fits, "that you're accent just gets thicker when you're mad?"

Rogue opened her mouth to retort, but then closed it, red faced. "Anyways, back to what we were talkin' 'bout before your lovely little _'observations_.' Did you an' Scott," she paused to think of an 'acceptable' phrase. "Did you and Scott _kiss and make up_?" she teased.

"Hey!" Now it was Kitty's turn to be mad (all in the spirit of fun, of course). "You know I don't like him like that! Besides, I've got my eye on someone completely different; but of course, you're lucky that I don't like Scott, because otherwise you'd have some pretty tough competition," she quipped.

"Competition? For what? What are ya talkin' about?" a bewildered Rogue cried.

"You know _exactly_ what I'm talking about! I may have only been around a little over a week, but I know that you've got a thing for him," she smirked, pleased with herself for this opportunity to test her theory.

"What? Ah don't know what you're tryin' ta say, but Ah _DO NOT_ have the hots for Scott!" she denied quickly (maybe a little too quickly). But even she, the Rogue; Master of Sarcasm; the Ice Queen, could not hide the blush from crawling onto her pale cheeks.

"I KNEW it! _I knew it_! I knew it! I knew it!" Kitty cried gleefully.

"You _tricked_ me! Why you little..." Rogue growled at her companion, but her expression suddenly transformed into a Grinch-worthy grin. "Who would this 'completely different' someone happen ta be, huh?"

Kitty's smirk faded a tad, remembering that she had thoughtlessly mentioned this certain someone. _Crap..._ "Oh... um... Nobody really..." Kitty said, trying to avoid the question. "It's nothing anyway...Just a crush..."

"Really? Then why are ya blushin' so hard?" Rogue questioned.

"You're ruthless..." Kitty said, shrinking away from her friend.

"Come on now. Ya know Ah'm not gonna let it drop 'till you tell me," she smirked.

"_Ugh_...fine..."

Rogue gave a satisfied smile. "Well?"

"Look, you can't tell _ANYONE_, okay?"

"Yeah, sure. I'm sworn to secrecy and all the jazz. Now _tell me_!"

Kitty gave a quick look over her shoulder before whispering to Rogue. "Well, you know Lance?"

Rogue's look of triumph quickly faded and was replaced by utter confusion and shock. "Lance? _Lance Alvers_? Are ya jokin'!" She had been playing guess and check with all the candidates she thought likely, sorting them into Probably, Maybe, and Definitely Not, but Lance's name hadn't even come up on the list!

Kitty promptly turned red and looked away, embarrassed, feeling ridiculous. _I knew that Rogue wouldn't understand._ She had reasoned with herself that just maybe Rogue wouldn't make fun of her, but apparently she was wrong. She turned to go.

Rogue saw this and immediately felt guilty about what she had said, or at least how she had said it. "Whoa, Kitty! Where ya going? Ah didn' mean what Ah said! Well...Ah did mean it—but NOT in the way you think Ah did... What Ah'm tryin' ta say is...um... Ah wasn' tryin' ta make fun of ya! Honest! Ah was just a little...surprised...that you like Lance... It was just unexpected..." Rogue managed a wry grin, stumbling over her words.

This perked Kitty right up, and she was soon blushing. "So... What do you think?"

"Well, Ah _guess_ Ah can see why you like the guy... Ah mean, Ah'll admit, he's, uh...cute...but do you really think you an' him'll work out? He just doesn't strike me as the commitment type, ya know?"

"I don't know... I guess since I met him when I was littler, I just have this—I guess 'connection' would be the best way to put it... I know it sounds so incredibly corny and all, but I seriously feel as if we'd never been separated..."

Rogue was a little startled by how serious Kitty's tone of voice was. She'd only met, or 're-met,' the guy a day ago. Kitty was still going on about Lance (which, in truth, scared the hell out of Rogue) when Rogue cleared her throat loudly, as aforementioned boy approached Kitty from behind.

Kitty got an odd look and arched an eyebrow. "What?"

Rogue thrust her chin forward, gesturing to the space behind Kitty. She turned around, and sure enough, there was Lance.

"Oh! Hey, Lance! You startled me," she smiled, trying not to show her furious blushing at the thought that if it had not been for Rogue, Lance would have heard everything she had been saying. And then, all Hell would have broken loose.

"Hey Kitty; Rogue," he nodded towards the Goth. Rogue smiled—well, half- smiled in any case. Lance had probably been the most bearable of the 'Brotherhood Boys,' as she had dubbed them.

Lance was about to say something else, when and white blur rushed up behind him, and low and behold, Pietro stood over Lance's shoulder, in all his glory. "Why are you hanging out with these X-Geeks?" He said the last word with loathing, glaring at Rogue. He was still bitter about the fact that she had left their team to join Xavier and his pets.

Rogue rolled her eyes, while Lance replied. "Talking."

Pietro turned his glare on Lance. "Whatever. I've got places to be. Catch you losers later," he said to them, speeding off.

"So..." Lance said, trying to blow Pietro's interruption off. "What happened last night after I left?"

"Oh, nothing," Kitty said dismissively. "Don't mind Scott, he was just doing the whole 'over-protective older brother thing,' and I already talked to him about that."

Lance snickered. "More like the 'stick shoved up ass routine...'"

Rogue burst out laughing, while Kitty chastised him. "Lance!"

"What? You know it's true."

Kitty slowly let the grin slip onto her face. "I suppose."

"Well, guys, Ah'd hate to be a third wheel, so Ah'm just gonna—" Rogue was interrupted by Pietro rushing up behind them, yet again. She sighed. "What do ya want now Pietro?"

Pietro promptly ignored her, being the oh-so-mature teenager he is, and turned to Lance. "I just remembered, Mystique said to be at the Boarding House today by 6:00. Said something about a new member or something. See ya later, slow pokes." And he was gone.

"...Riight... Well, Ah'll be leaving now. Gotta go make up some test Ah missed in English. Bye." Rogue nudged Kitty and winked before she left, causing Kitty to turn bright pink.

And then there were two.

An uncomfortable silence settled between both of them. "So...uh...Why don't we go do something other than just standing here?"

"Sure!"

And so they were off to the football field.

* * *

After school, Lance drove Kitty and Rogue home. Rogue hadn't finished her English test that morning and Lance had to serve another detention for falling asleep during his Chemistry class. Kitty told Scott that she would wait for Rogue to finish her test and would get a ride home. She was really just looking for an excuse to be with Lance and she knew it, although she was pretty sure Scott bought it.

_He's so clueless sometimes. But really, I'm so pathetic for doing this in the first place..._

The three of them were sitting in silence, when Rogue brought up what Pietro had said that morning. "I wonder who this new person Mystique's brining is..."

"Yeah, me too. She normally doesn't care for formalities like having us all there or anything... I wonder what this kid can do..."

"Right..." Kitty said, feeling left out. She had never met Mystique, at least, not in her true form, and she never been part of the Brotherhood.

"Whatever... It doesn't matter. Hey, Kitty, do we have any homework in Chem.?" Lance asked, changing the subject so Kitty would be included.

Kitty laughed. "If you hadn't been sleeping then you would know, wouldn't you?" she replied coyly.

"Ouch." Rogue provided commentary from the back.

"Come on...The only reason to stay awake in that class was because I was sitting next to you. Since she moved me, I might as well catch up on my sleep," Lance said smirking.

_She'll have to give in now—that was a good line..._

Kitty giggled and blushed.

_Works like a charm._

"Awwww... How cuuute!" Rogue mocked them.

They both turned around in unison (they were at a red light). "Shut up."

Rogue just laughed at them as they turned around again.

"All we have to do is read the chapter and answer the section review questions." Kitty continued as if Rogue hadn't been cooing at them a second ago.

"Great. Now which chapter is that?"

Rogue slapped her forehead. "You, Lance, are hopeless."

"Chapter 12 you idiot! I swear, you are so thick! We've been o it the past week!" Kitty exclaimed, eyes twinkling.

"Well...I've been...distracted..." he winked at her.

Again, Kitty felt her face grow hot.

"No! No, no, no! You two stop it right there!" Rogue pointed an accusing finger at the two. "Ah refuse ta be subjected ta this sweet, fluffy _torture_! You two just wait 'till Ah get out of the vehicle, okay?" Rogue then proceeded to smile sweetly at them.

Kitty and Lance quieted down, feeling a bit awkward. When the arrived at the mansion Rogue said, "Thanks for the ride," and practically flew out of the jeep. Kitty went to follow, but Lance gently grabbed her wrist to hold her in place.

"Hey, Kitty?"

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering if you, uh...wanted to go out with me sometime. Saturday to be exact. We could go to dinner, a movie; uh—the mall—anything you want! How 'bout it?" Lance looked at her hopefully.

"Sure! I would love to!" Kitty replied quickly.

Lance grinned wider than the Cheshire Cat. "Okay! I'll, uh, pick you up at 7. On Saturday. Uh, dinner and a movie sound good? Or would you prefer the mall? Either one."

Kitty smiled. "You are so funny, Lance. The mall works. So tomorrow at 7? Sounds good. It's a date." Kitty felt like she was in a dream. _I can't believe I'm actually going out on a date with Lance!_ Just as she turned to leave, Lance pulled her back again.

"One more thing—" He lifted one hand from the wheel and placed it tenderly on her chin, moving it forward a little. He readjusted himself in the driver's seat so he could lean towards her and gave her a short, tender kiss.

Kitty sat there, shocked for a moment, but when Lance moved to pull away Kitty placed her hands on the back of his head pulling him closer, deepening the kiss, though still soft. Finally, they parted for air.

"Wow," Kitty breathed.

"Yeah," Lance smiled. "Have a goodnight," he told her, their faces still close.

"You, too."

Kitty giggled when Lance kissed the tip of her nose. "Well, you'd better get on you way before Summers gets it in his head come protect you from me. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay, bye Lance! Thanks for the ride." And with that she got out of the car and phased through the gate.

Lance sighed happily and drove off with a goofy grin on his face. He hit the accelerator—after all…he didn't want to be late when Mystique specifically told him to be at the Boarding House at 6:00. If he was, she would probably kill or dismember him, and he wanted to be completely whole and healthy for his date with Kitty on Saturday.

Lance walked into the Brotherhood Boarding House at 6:03 where he was immediately assaulted by Pietro.

"Why weren't you here on time?"

"Are they here yet?"

"No."

"Then I'm not late."

"But you could have been, and you know how Mystique gets about these things. You'd think she was PMSing all the time..."

"True, but the point is, I got here before them, so she'll never _know_ I was a whole three minutes late."

"Yeah—well it was close. You made it by a few seconds."

"What do you mean, yo?" Todd asked, coming in to see what the commotion was.

"I mean Lance was only on time by a few seconds. Look for yourself." Pietro pointed out the window, where, yet again, a slick black car pulled up in front of the Boarding House. The first person to get out of the car was Mystique disguised as Principal Darkholme. Following her was an old woman they had never seen before with grey hair who seemed to have a stern, regal air about her.

She couldn't be the new recruit, could she? She was _waay_ too old... Maybe she was the guy's mother...

Mystique and the old woman leaned into the car, as if to help the passenger inside get to his feet.

"I wonder what he can do," Pietro thought aloud.

"I dunno," Fred (who had joined the three to see what was going on) answered for no apparent reason.

Finally the two women managed to help up an unkempt, crazed looking—girl? _A girl?_ A _girl_ was going to live with them? What on _Earth_?

She had a mad glint in her eyes, her chin-length disheveled raven black hair was going every which way, and she was wearing a threadbare light brown trench coat, which she had wrapped around her tightly, her arms crossed and her head bowed. Mystique and the old woman were helping the girl make her way to the Boarding House.

"Yo, I think I'm in love..." sighed Todd.

"Riight..." said Lance.

Pietro, who was usually very outspoken, said nothing. He was looking at the girl with a detached look on his face—as if on the verge of remembering something.

When the girl stumbled and her head jerked up, moving her hair out of her eyes, something in Pietro's mind clicked. He turned paper white and gulped loudly.

"What Pietro: She an ex-girlfriend or something?" Lance laughed.

"No—" he said, never taking his eyes off the girl. "More like ex-sister..."

The threesome reached the door.

"Meaning?" Lance asked, puzzled.

"I mean, my father shipped her off to an—"

But Lance never found out where Pietro's father shipped this girl off to, because before Pietro could finish his sentence, Mystique, the mystery woman, and Pietro's 'ex-sister' entered the Boarding House. Pietro squeaked and moved behind Lance, who was slightly taller than he was.

The girl, still being held up at the arms by Mystique and the old lady, raised her head and looked around, her face a mask of boredom and displeasure. Her eyes fell on Fred, moved to Todd, and then Lance. Not a single emotion crossed her face as she did this. She moved her eyes to inspect the room, but—_Wait a minute!_ Did she just see a shock of white hair behind the boy with the mullet? She cocked her head to the side, trying to see behind him.

While the new girl was looking around, Mystique began introductions. "Boys, meet your new secret weapon," she gestured to the girl, but paused, seeing what was going on. "Well, Pietro, why are you hiding behind Lance?"

The other boys snickered as Pietro got a mortified look on his face and quickly stepped out from behind Lance.

"_Pietro_!" the girl hissed, her voice rough and hoarse from disuse. Her mask quickly fell off—an enraged expression etched itself onto her features.

"Oh! _Hey, Wanda_! How've you been?" Pietro sputtered nervously.

Wanda did not answer. There was a fire burning in her eyes; she was longing for revenge. Things in the room began to slowly rise off of the floor in accordance to her hands, which she had unwrapped from around herself. Her worn trench coat opened a little at the neck, the buttons being old and loose.

"Now come on Wanda! Can't we talk about this? Be rational?_ Please!_ I had no choice! I couldn't stop him!" Pietro pleaded, looking terrified, trying to discreetly back up into the kitchen.

For all his words, trying to calm her down, he had done just the opposite. She was now more infuriated than before. All Lance, Todd, Fred, Mystique, and the old woman could do was watch in horrid fascination.

Besides, thought Mystique, she might as well get it all out of her system. Otherwise we could have some problems...

The levitated objects began to glow an eerie electric blue and revolved violently around the girl. The lights flickered uncontrollably and the ceiling groaned, as if threatening to cave in.

"Run!" Pietro cried.

He, Lance, and Fred took cover behind the decrepit couch which hadn't been drawn up into the whirlwind yet, while Todd hopped behind the overstuffed armchair, hoping not to get hit by the flying objects. Unfortunately for him, just as the coffee table came whizzing by his head, the armchair he was clinging to began to rise off the ground.

"Oh, crap," he whispered hysterically while holding onto the chair for dear life as he hurtled through the air and around the room.

"_Pietro_!" Wanda cried murderously, lifting her arms over her head, focusing on the lamp. It glowed blue and began shaking. Finally she succeeded in breaking off the lamp, along with parts of the ceiling. Once the lamp was floating, she hurled her arms in Pietro's direction, and the lamp followed, plunging through the air, towards him.

"You just wait until I get my hands out you! You will pay for what he did to me! For what you—"

By now, the old woman had decided not to let Wanda's fit go on any longer. A little letting loose was not a problem: the girl needed to release her emotions and pent up anger, but now it was getting violent, and she was very near to impaling Pietro with the lamp. _Her aim's getting better though...  
_  
"Wanda! Wanda—" the woman whispered into her ear in a relaxing voice. "Calm down, child! Control yourself; do not let your rage control you!" She placed her hands on Wanda's shoulders, calming her. Wanda took a deep breath.

The flying objects crashed to the floor, along with the arm chair Todd had been clinging to (he viewed the whole experience as a great start to any relationship).

"I will have my revenge, and believe me; you will regret ever letting him send me there!" Having said this, Wanda left the demolished living room with the woman's hands still on her shoulders, steering her upstairs to a room that had been set aside for her.

Mystique stayed downstairs with the shell shocked boys. "That is Wanda Maximoff, Pietro's twin," Mystique shot an amused glance at Pietro, who squirmed at his sibling's name. "She will be living here from now on as a recruit along with Agatha Harkness, who helps her with controlling her powers. Once she establishes control she will be an exceptional asset to this 'team.' I would warn you not to aggravate or anger her. Wanda...has a very short temper, and you've seen the results." Mystique gestured to the leveled room. "By the way, I would like this entire room cleaned up by tomorrow morning."

The boys' mouths hung open. "What?"

"You heard," Mystique said evenly. "Now get to work"

"Just a second," Lance said. "What exactly can she do? I mean what did she do to this place?"

"Wanda can alter probability. She's going to be a great improvement for us," Mystique smirked. "On Saturday we're going to have a little fun at the mall. When the X-Men show up, we will finally be ready to take them on."

Lance's thoughts snapped to Kitty. _I have to warn her! I don't want her to get hurt! But I can't tell her tomorrow—she'll get mad at me—she might cancel our date... Maybe I'm overestimating her reaction...No... I don't know! I'll call her on Saturday..._

"Lance? Yo, Lance!"

Lance's head shot up. "What?"

"A little help?"

"Where's Pietro?"

"He ran off the second Mystique went upstairs, and you've been out of it since she mentioned trashing the mall on Saturday."

Silence.

"It'll be awesome, yo—and with Wanda on our side, we actually have a chance at kicking some X-Geek ass!"

"Mmm..."

"Yo? You listening?"

"Hellooo? Earth to Lance?"

"Lance!"

* * *

A/N: So there it is! I finally made something happen! Yay! Please review, I love hearing from you guys! 


	9. Heart Shaped Box

**Important Notice: I am currently re-writing all of the chapters in this story, because, looking back, I have a lot of plot holes and my writing is pretty weak at some parts. Please bear with me I would still appreciate feedback on if you like the new version of the chapters and if it makes more sense. It would suck to rewrite everything and then have it be worse than before. Thanks! You guys are awesome**

**I also want to apologize for the lack of updates. I have no excuse. I'm just an awful person I hope I haven't lost too many of you. For those of you still reading, you are the BEST and I love you to pieces!**

A/U: Lance Alvers was orphaned when he was 7 and sent to an orphanage. There he met Katherine Pryde, a fellow orphan at only 5 years old. Ten years later, they meet again, but this time on opposing teams.

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men, and I am not making any money off of this.

A/N: I think I may have fixed my timeline by having Lance arriving in Bayville a week earlier than Kitty. Let us hope everything works out…

* * *

**Heart-Shaped Box**

Well go figure. Old One-Eye was right. Kind of ironic now that he thought back on it. He, Lance Alvers, had severely fucked things up. Not just with Kitty Pryde, who was, essentially, the best thing that had ever happened to him—no matter how lame and angsty it sounded—but his whole life in general. He'd lost the "path" he'd wanted his life to take. Hell, he'd just gone and broken the most basic of "guidelines" he had set for himself, and now, any shred of happiness that he had once been able to hold onto was gone. Just like that. _I should be a magician,_ Lance thought darkly, _because that was one hell of a vanishing act._

Why the melancholy mood, you ask? It was quite simple, really. All Lance had to do was make a choice. Your basic good idea versus bad idea. Unfortunately for him, he'd picked the wrong one. And he didn't even have a good reason. He just hadn't had the balls to tell Kitty what was going on. And when she finally _had _found out…Well, things had gone straight to hell from there…

Of course, he could always blame Mystique—after all, if she hadn't been so impatient to utilize her newly acquired "secret weapon" Lance wouldn't have been in this fix. Well, it would have been delayed at any rate…But really, the blame could only be placed on him—him and his wrong decision.

The root of Lance's troubles began Friday night, while on his date with Kitty. Dinner had been perfect; he would be the first to admit! They had gone to an Italian restaurant downtown—a very good, expensive restaurant. The pair had discussed everything from school work to their opposing teams (although, admittedly, Lance was a bit tense on that topic) to their favorite movies. At one point in their conversation, while Lance was telling Kitty about Wanda and her catastrophic "welcoming party," he had the perfect opportunity to warn her, but instead he took the easy way out and abruptly changed the subject.

No other such opportunities presented themselves, for which Lance was grateful. The later into the date he could tell her, the better. Maybe at the mall—he wouldn't be able to handle it if she walked out on him in this semi-fancy restaurant where people would be more likely to take notice of a scene. Of course, who was to say that she wouldn't walk out on him at the mall? Looking back, Lance recognized he was stalling.

"Should have come out and told her nimrod," he berated himself. Lance shook his head hopelessly. As if the night hadn't been draining enough, he was now forced to dwell over it because if he slept the nightmares would come. Nightmares of what he'd so stupidly done tonight, nightmares of his father… But he hadn't even reached that part of the night's events in his brooding.

After they had finished eating and Lance had paid the check (leaving his wallet significantly lighter—if this kept up he would need to find another job) they had driven to the mall in his jeep. Nothing had seemed wrong… _Why couldn't we just have gone to see a movie? Why?_ The first sign that something wasn't right was when they were coming out of a store, they bumped into—

"Toad?"

"Oh! There you are, yo! The boss lady needs you. Plan's taking place earlier than expected," he grinned, his yellow teeth flashing in a sickening way.

At the mention of this "plan" all the blood in Lance's face drained, leaving him with a ghostly, hollow appearance.

"What do you mean?" Kitty asked quizzically from behind Lance. "What are you talking about?"

Todd looked back at Kitty, then at Lance, eye brows raised. "Well, you're in some deep shit, yo…"

"What? What are you talking about!" Kitty demanded. "Lance! Tell me what's—"

She was interrupted by none other than Pietro. "Both of you hurry and quit slacking off. We have to trash this place bad enough so that the X-Geeks show up," he told them. Then he saw Kitty, whose eyes had widened and was now staring at Lance as if for confirmation on what Quicksilver had just said. "Or the rest of them any way," he smirked. "Have fun cleaning _that_ mess up Avalanche!" And he was gone. Presumably to lift all the customers' wallets in that wing of the mall—those who hadn't already fled in terror from the mass mayhem that had just begun.

"You'd better get cracking, yo; Mystique said that they're gonna be here any minute. I'm gonna go find Poopsie," he sighed happily and hopped off.

Lance took a deep breath and turned to face Kitty who was looking at him in disbelief. "You—you were _planning_ to do this? So that you could…_fight_ us?" Lance could tell by her voice that he was walking on eggshells. One wrong move and he would be dead. At least his relationship with Kitty Pryde—also known as Shadowcat of the X-Men, would be dead. He inhaled deeply once more and with a pained look in his eyes he whispered, "Kitty…it's…it's not what you think…"

Well, apparently _that_ was the wrong thing to say, because low-and-behold, Kitty's eerie calmness shattered. "It's not what I think? Then what exactly is it? Because I'm _DYING_ to know why _MY BOYFRIEND_ had been planning something to _HURT ME AND MY FRIENDS!_ _Please_ tell me, because honestly, I'm _quite_ stumped on this one!" she screamed at him hysterically.

Thank god there was no one else there to witness that… All the people previously in the mall had all fled to the exits like sheep trying to escape a hungry wolf once benches and beams had begun to fly around in the lobby as the fire alarms had gone off.

Lance closed his eyes and opened them slowly. "Look, Kitty, I can explain. It's not my fault—I—it was Mystique! She recruited Wanda so that we could beat you guys. It wasn't my idea—I didn't want to…" he pleaded desperately.

"Oh, but of _COURSE_!" Kitty screeched sarcastically. "Of _COURSE_ it's not your fault. It wasn't your idea! You don't _WANT_ to do it…then why don't you?" her voice had softened a little at the question, hoping he would give the right answer.

And so the first big choice of the night was presented to him. He had two very different, yet easily understood options. A) He could choose Kitty, his girlfriend, whom he adored, but then would then be subjected to Mystique's revenge, or B) he could choose Mystique, who was his livelihood and provided for most of his, and the rest of the Brotherhood's needs, but lose Kitty, probably forever. And he took the coward's way out.

"Kitty, I…I ca—Mystique! She lets me stay at the Boarding House; she pays all the bills…she got me into Bayville High for Christ's sake!"

Kitty wouldn't meet his eyes. She was so angry—disappointed, betrayed; those words didn't even begin to portray the emotions she felt at that moment. He could see it. _Feel_ it coming off of her. But never the less—

"I mean, it's not like I can just say 'Hey, Mystique, I'm in love with Kitty so I'm not going to do the one favor you've asked of me since you took me into your house, even though you brought me here to do just that!'" he cried, frustrated with the situation.

Kitty looked up at him when he said the word 'love'. "You…" she stared at him critically—he was holding his head in his hands, pulling at his hair, breathing heavy. "You have a choice, Lance," she whispered, approaching him and cradling his head in her arms, stroking his hair. "You _always_ have a choice."

That's when Lance made the biggest mistake of his life. He lost his temper. It was as though he had just snapped—drank the proverbial potion, turning him from the soft spoken Dr. Jekyll into the monstrous Mr. Hyde. "NO I DON'T! You just don't _get it_!" he yelled, grabbing her hands violently from his hair and forcing her down onto the ground so that she would have to look at him.

"Lance! Please _stop it_! You're _hurting_ me," Kitty whimpered from the floor, trying to get out of his grasp. She was so terrified, she had forgotten she could phase. She just sat there struggling, horrorstruck, hoping he would let her go. At her words the ground began to quake. _Oh god…Oh god, he's going to kill me…I'm going to die…_

"You think I can just walk away from Mystique? It doesn't _WORK_ that way! I—DON'T—HAVE—A—CHOICE!" he roared, squeezing her wrists harder, shaking her. Kitty shrieked out in pain. "Understand?"

Kitty was a sobbing wretch by now, his firm grasp on her wrists was the only thing holding her up from completely collapsing to the ground like the broken heap of pain she felt she was. Lance was still furious, but Kitty wasn't going to just sit there and let him get the better of her. She spoke softly at first, raising her head so he could see her eyes; they were hard, unfeeling—determined. "You're right. You don't have a choice. You know why? _Because you're too cowardly to stand up to Mystique!_"

Before he could react, she continued, her confidence growing, along with the volume of her voice. "Or maybe you don't want to. Maybe you _LIKE_ hurting innocent people! Maybe you _LIKE_ fighting with me, hurting me!" she yelled.

_And now for the grand finale…_

"But you know what? Scott was _right_ to warn me about you. Because you're _Just. Like. Him._"

Lance leaned in closer, "_Just like who?_" he hissed with just as much venom.

"_Your father_," Kitty spat out, her voice cutting like a dagger, knowing there was nothing in the world that could hurt him more than that. _She had won_.

Lance's reaction was frightening. At first his eyes widened and he just stood there. Then slowly they adopted a crazed look, making it appear as if he were out for blood. "Don't you _EVER_ say that I'm like _him_! I'm NOT LIKE HIM!" he screamed, more to himself than to Kitty. Kitty started trembling, fearing what was coming next… Lance turned his attention back to her. He opened his mouth, trying to say something. He couldn't find the words though, so he let go of her wrists. She was too terrified to move, and just inched away from him on the floor. He took another step towards her and back-handed her before she could move away again.

Kitty screamed as she flew across the floor, her light frame being no match for Lance. She clutched the right side of her face in agony and spat out blood. She looked up at him, a mixture of disbelief and hate. "_Just…like him_," she managed to get out, spitefully.

Lance stood unmoving. He couldn't believe what had just happened; _what had he done?_ He had never lost control of himself so badly…and it had never cost him as much as this undoubtedly would. Kitty was right…He was his father. No—he wasn't…he was _worse_ than that bastard…

As he stood there, staring at his hands with his back turned to Kitty, who was on the ground, holding her cheek bone, he faintly heard racket that distinctly marked the arrival of the X-Men. They must have heard all the screaming a few minutes earlier because he immediately heard someone—was it Rogue?—rushing to find Kitty. She had managed to get to her feet and shakily.

"Goodbye _Avalanche_," she said, her face showing no emotion. Even her eyes were empty. She was determined not to cry over this man who had made her feel weak. He wasn't worth it, she kept telling herself. She turned her back him and made her way towards her friend who was running up the escalator amidst all the chaos Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Blob, and Toad were creating.

Behind him, Lance heard Rogue's concerned voice. "Oh mah _Gawd_! What happened? Ya—yer cheek, it's all swollen an' purple…"

"Nothing. Nothing at all. Let's go help the others," she said, not a hint of emotion betraying her in her voice. She had shut them off. She knew if she allowed herself to feel right now she would fall apart, becoming a hurt, sobbing wreck. Better to be unfeeling…

_Oh god, what have I done?_ Lance thought in horror.

And then he ran. Not back to the Brotherhood—he couldn't go back there. That place had made him a monster—made him his father. The Institute was out of the question as well.

Even if Kitty hadn't yet told Rogue was had happened between them, she would figure it out eventually along with the rest of the X-Men. What with the god awful bruise he was sure would mar Kitty's right cheekbone and all the yelling they must have overheard… He wouldn't be welcome there.

No… Better to get out of Bayville entirely. It's not like he hadn't run away before. That was one of the best and easiest ways to get out of a foster home… That and pissing in their laundry… He allowed himself a brief half felt smile. Yes, he would run. Maybe head to New York City? There's no way the X-Men could track him down there, even if they felt like looking for him—he could just disappear into the background of the city.

_Oh god…_he couldn't believe he had just hit Kitty. He'd hit her pretty damn hard too…It was impossible to describe the feelings of self loathing Lance felt right then._ Maybe I should kill myself…Jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge would be a pretty cool way to go…_ No, killing himself wouldn't help anyone…It would be the easy way out; _the coward's way out…_ He would never take the coward's way out. _Never again_.

* * *

Wanda sighed. This was the _last_ place on Earth she wanted to be. Besides the asylum at any rate. When she had complained to Mystique, the blue shape shifter had oh-so-kindly offered to take her back there if she had a problem staying at the Boarding House. Back to that awful man and his experiments… She hoped he rotted in hell. But that was beside the point. 

The point _was_ that she was now stuck at this stupid, trashy house where that annoying frog-thing kept following her and calling her "Poopsie" or "Cuddle lumps." This morning the little amphibian even had the audacity to call her "Baby cakes," and no matter how many times she hexed him or told him to give it up, the freak kept coming back for more. And that wasn't even the worst of it.

Whenever she entered a room in which Pietro happened to be in he would pale and flee in terror. As much as she hated him and wanted to say she didn't care, she couldn't…wasn't he her twin after all? Shouldn't they have a "special bond" or something to that effect? It hurt her that he couldn't even _talk_ to her about what had happened. Couldn't even face her or look her in the eyes. About what he'd let their so-called "father" do to her. Maybe if he would just _talk_ to her, some of her anger might ease up.

Agatha was always saying one of the best ways to be able to gain some sort of…closure? _acceptance?_ would be to talk about it. Preferably to Pietro. After all, what _could_ he have done to stop the Master of Magnetism? What had she expected a scrawny kid of six (or was it seven? She couldn't remember…It was so long ago and she'd long since lost track of time…) to do against Magneto, one of the most powerful mutants in the world?

_How about _**saying something**_instead of just standing there _letting_ him,_ she thought spitefully.

_But enough of that. _She shivered—thinking about all the years she had spent in the asylum always made her extremely uneasy. To brighten her mood she began plotting all the different ways to get revenge on her fa—Magneto. That always made her feel better…

She would _so_ rather be looking for Magneto than having to be cooped up in her barely-an-excuse-of-a-room and being forced to think about everything, but the fact was, Mystique was pissed off that Lance had taken off last night, so now she wouldn't let Wanda out of the house, paranoid that she might leave as well. Which definitely said something about how happy Wanda was with her current situation if Mystique had to worry about her leaving.

It was a shame Lance was gone, too. Not just because his freedom meant her imprisonment, but because he had seemed like an "okay" guy; the most tolerable one in the house as well (not that there was much competition between Fred, who was pretty dumb, the amphibian or her brother). She could have seen herself maybe becoming friends with him…It would have been nice to have friends. At least she figured it would. She'd never _had_ any before thanks to an extremely sheltered childhood and then the asylum.

She would have liked to ask him about what had happened with that girl, the X-Man, that had made him run, but she guessed she'd never have the chance, seeing as he was gone now. She had been so concentrated on destroying everything in sight…

She had just heard some screaming here and there, felt a small quake, and then saw the X-Man with the two-toned hair supporting the brunette who looked worse for wear and who had a giant welt on her cheek. She wondered if Lance had—no, he wouldn't have hit her….He didn't seem the type. But you never knew…

Wanda shook her head. _Whatever…hmmm…now how to get out of here..._ She _really_ didn't like being a part of the Brotherhood. She thought it was so stupid! Really. So they—no correction, so _she_ kicked the X-Men's asses. Big deal. She didn't care. What difference did it make if they were able to trash a mall? Did it somehow prove them right and the X-Men wrong? The X-Men actually seemed like decent people. Well, she couldn't really say that in all honesty because she didn't know them, but she _could_ say that she would most definitely enjoy living with them_ much _more.

_Wait_! That was it! _They_ would help her get out of Mystique's clutches! _Right_? That's what they _did_ wasn't it? That whole 'help out people who need it' mumbo jumbo? And maybe she could make some friends while she was at it… That would be nice… She smiled to herself.

And once she was free of Mystique, she could go hunt her fa—Magneto (_he's NOT MY FATHER_) down. After she did that, who knows what she would do… Maybe go to school or get a job or something. She'd never really thought about what she'd do once she have avenged herself; finding Magneto had always been her primary goal for when she got out.

Well, if she had friends here, couldn't she come back here? Wanda smiled a little wider. But wait, she was getting ahead of herself. First she needed get the hell _out_ of this house… No matter, come Monday and she would just go to school with the rest of the boys, and then she would finally be able to approach an X-Man for help. Assuming they didn't hold grudges for too long…

* * *

"Kitty? Kitty are ya listenin' ta me? Hello-oo?" Rogue sighed as she sat down next to her friend for lunch. It had been two days since the events at the mall. After Rogue had found her in that eerie unfeeling calm, they had proceeded to "help the others." In reality they got their asses handed back to them by that new girl; called herself Scarlet Witch. 

Rogue scoffed. Scarlet Witch. _Honestly?_ What kind of a name was that? Her little "hex" thingies were blue anyways, so what was with the 'Scarlet.' Why not Light Blue Witch? Rogue smirked at the thought.

But anyways, after they had been forced to retreat, Kurt 'ported Rogue and Kitty back to the mansion. The others could get themselves home, but Kitty wasn't looking so good. It wasn't so much her physical condition that worried them at all, it was…Well, it was her personality. Or her complete lack of.

She hadn't uttered a single word since talking to Rogue and she had this haunted look in her eyes. Once home, she hadn't eaten anything, and shut herself up in the room she shared with Rogue. Rogue was forced to pick the lock to get in! And then what she saw made her heart sink.

Kitty was curled up in a ball underneath her covers, looking uncharacteristically frail, holding her blanket as though it was lifeline. The feeling was oddly reminiscent of how _she_ was when she had first discovered her powers.

Rogue had tried talking to her, asking her what was wrong, what had happened, but her normally perky roommate wasn't responding. She just kept staring off into space. What _really _puzzled Rogue was what had happened?

She couldn't figure it out! She knew it must have had something to do with that smarting bruise and…_Lance_? Kitty had been out on a date with him that night…But no one had seen Lance at the "attack." This kept getting weirder. Finally Rogue had given up trying to figure out what had happened and given into the sleepiness tugging at her eyelids.

Sunday had been practically the same. She'd stayed up in her room in bed, would refuse to come down for meals, and would not say a word to anyone. Finally Sunday night Rogue convinced her to come downstairs for dinner, but even then she was silent.

She only ate after Mr. Logan pleaded with her, something that surprised everyone at the table, including himself. After dinner the Professor asked her if she felt up to going to school on Monday, she had said yes and then asked Ms. Munroe if she could please fix her some tea to help her sleep.

And now, it was Monday, they were at Bayville High School, and Kitty was still quiet. "Kitty, _please_ talk ta me! Ah'm really worried 'bout ya an' your not helpin' at all jus' sittin' there!"

Amazingly enough Kitty's head snapped up at her name. "Oh…I'm really sorry Rogue," she said quietly. "I just haven't been feeling like myself lately."

"No kiddin,'" Rogue said, still slightly apprehensive. "So are ya feelin' better?"

"Better than I _was_, but not by a lot…"

"Will ya please tell me what happened? It'll make ya feel better if ya get it off your chest. Believe me…"

Kitty sighed, "I guess…"

* * *

Wanda entered the cafeteria looking around for familiar faces. She didn't really expect to find anyone to sit with and she didn't really care. Today in _ALL_ of her classes so far, everyone had kept throwing her weird looks, like she wasn't human or something. The amusing part about that was that she wasn't; she was a mutant; but they didn't know that. So when she'd laughed at them all for being so judgmental, only to be right in a way, they'd thought she was a lunatic. Which was again, very ironic, considering her history. 

So far she'd had English and World History with Pietro, and everyone had fawned over her brother. It was aggravating and sickening to say the least. _So that's where he got his big ego…_

She'd had Chemistry with Kitty and would have been with Lance as well, but he was marked absent. She hadn't said anything. Besides, judging from Kitty's reaction when Lance had been found absent, she was happier not knowing where he was. _Well that's weird…Must have something to do with why he ran._ Besides, it was really none of her business.

Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to talk to Kitty at all. Maybe now if she could find her…

She passed Pietro's table, which was surrounded by "adoring fans." _Not again…_ Wanda inwardly groaned. In the corner sat Fred and the Toad. _I'd better get a move on before one of them notices me…_That was the last thing Wanda wanted—to be forced to endure Toad's pet names at _school_ as well as the Boarding House. And what was worse was the since they were at school Mystique had forbidden the use of their powers. Although when she hexed Toad it only seemed to encourage him…

At last she spotted a few of X-Men she had been looking for sitting at a table. She had heard enough from the Brotherhood to know that the boy with the sunglasses had a "stick shoved up his ass" and the red heard was a misleading, teasing, slut (but Fred had told her that and she wasn't sure if she should believe him or not).

The African American with the bleached hair would most likely not help her, as he hated Pietro with a passion, and even if he didn't already know that she was his sister (not many people could tell) he just didn't seem to be the type that would care. Next to him was a pale boy with black hair that seemed to have an odd blue-ish tint in it. She'd never seen him before though.

The only other X-Man left unaccounted for was the blue, fuzzy one. He had looked like he might have helped her; he'd seemed kind enough. He hadn't fought her at the mall, he had tried to altogether avoid her so that he wouldn't have to (or maybe he just _couldn't _get near her…but couldn't he teleport or something?). Be that as it may, he wasn't here. No small wonder. How could he go to school with blue fur and fangs?

So that left the two X-Men (or should she say X-Women?) at the table, but they seemed to be preoccupied with something. She didn't want to interrupt, but she needed a place to sit before Toad caught sight of her. She shuddered at the thought.

Wanda cleared her throat. "Um…excuse me? Can I sit here?"

The girl with the two-toned hair looked up from her one-sided conversation with the brunette and gave her a once over. _Hmm…Black vinyl pants, a red tank top-ish thing, hardly and make up, really short black hair—red tips…She must have cut it after the mall incident…_"Scarlet Witch?"

"Wanda Maximoff."

Rogue raised an eyebrow. "Ya're related to Pietro?"

Wanda's lips thinned. "His sister. Not by choice of my own," was the reply.

This caused the girl to smirk a little. "Ah'm Rogue. This is Kitty," she gestured to the brunette who sat next to her. No response. "Sit down won't ya?"

Well, that had been easier than expected. Confusion played across Wanda's face, but none the less, she sat down next to Rogue. "Aren't you mad about—?"

"Saturday night? Not at all," Rogue grinned. "Losing every now an' then keeps Scott in his place."

"Oh…" Wanda said, still a little uncomfortable with the situation. Her eyes strayed to Kitty, who hadn't said anything since Wanda had approached them.

"Oh, don't mind Kitty," she whispered. "She's not feelin' well, but she's been like this all weekend. She won' tell anyone what's wrong either; Ah almost had her, but then ya interrupted. Not that Ah blame ya o'course, ya needed a place ta sit. 's jus' that Ah was so close…" Rogue sighed.

"How—how'd she get that bruise?" Wanda asked, feeling incredibly nosy, but very curious.

"Ah don't know; she won' talk 'bout it. Ah think it might have somethin' ta do with Lance," her eyebrows knit in confusion, "but that jus' doesn' make sense."

Suddenly Kitty spoke up, "Where _is_ Lance? He wasn't in Chemistry."

Rogue and Wanda looked startled. "What?"

"Well, I figured since you live with him, right? So where is he?" she asked quietly.

"Lance? Well, he's…gone. We didn't see him at the mall once your team arrived, and he ran. Even Mystique doesn't know where he is."

Kitty's eyes glazed over. "Wh-what?"

Rogue swallowed hard. "He's gone Kitty…What happened? _Please _tell us. We won' tell anyone," Rogue begged. "I guarantee ya'll feel better once ya get it off 'a your chest."

Wanda was again taken aback at how easily she was invited into their circle. It felt good though, that they hadn't judged her like everyone else, that they had given her a chance in spite of Saturday.

Kitty eyed Wanda warily. "You swear you won't say _anything_?"

"Yes."

"Yeah."

Kitty took a deep breath. "Good, because I'm really not in the mood for Scott's gloating…" And with that, she told them the events of Saturday night. When she was done both Wanda and Rogue were quiet.

"Oh my god…Are—are you okay? I can't believe _Lance_ would do that…He seemed nice enough when I met him…I'm so sorry…" Wanda stuttered, not knowing what else she could say.

Rogue merely took Kitty in her arms and hugged her, patting her back so she would calm down. "Feel a bit better?"

"A bit."

"Good. Hey, Wanda, could ya pass me some napkins so we can get Kitty cleaned up?"

"Sure; here."

"Come on Kitty, take deep breaths, wipe your tears away, come on," Rogue continued patting her back. "And ya'd better 'ppreciate this 'cause ya _know_ how uncomfortable all this touchy feely stuff makes me," she said jokingly. Wanda laughed and Kitty gave a dry chuckle, smiling through her tears.

"Thanks Rogue, you really are a great friend," she sniffled, squeezing her one final time before pulling away.

"Hey now, that's enough. Don't push yer luck," she grinned. Again, her companions laughed.

"I'll be right back…I'm gonna go get clean up in the bathroom," Kitty sniffled, wiping away a tear.

"'Kay," Rogue said, concern still audible in her voice. "Don't be too long…"

Kitty nodded, and smiled, although it didn't reach her red puffy eyes. She stood up shakily and made her way out of the cafeteria towards the bathroom. Rogue and Wanda watched her go, and then Rogue turned to Wanda.

"So what 'xactly is your power?"

Wanda grimaced, her thoughts brought back to why she was sitting here, talking to X-Men in the first place. "I can alter probability, and I have these hex bolt things. They're kind of hard to explain. But that's the whole reason I needed to talk to you."

Rogue's brows furrowed in confusion. "Why?"

Wanda nervously threw a glance at Pietro's table. "I don't want to be part of the Brotherhood. I need your help…"

* * *

"She _what_?" Kitty asked in disbelief. 

"She says she doesn' wanna be a part of the Brotherhood, but she can't leave 'cause Mystique had some sort of blackmail on her. She said somethin' 'bout an asylum, but she got all fidgety at that point an' then the bell rang," Rogue explained as they made their way from Scott's car towards the Institute. The school day was over, and Kitty was glad to have anything to distract her from Lance's betrayal and disappearance.

"An asylum?"

"Yeah…Ah don't know if Ah should trust 'er or not. Ah mean…she _seemed_ genuine enough, but who knows. Maybe Mystique put her up ta it. It wouldn' be above her ta do something like that."

Kitty massaged her head. "Ugh, this is just giving me an even bigger headache. I need to get some sleep."

"Yeah, ya do… Ah thought ya were gonna fall over today… Ya know ya really shouldn' blame yourself 'bout Lance runnin' off…" the older girl said gently. "It's not your fault… Ya did the right thing by not takin' any crap from him."

Kitty gave a straggled sob. "I—I know, but it hurts so much!" She collapsed into Rogue's arms. "I mean, I've known him since I was five, and…and I know I really hurt him, too! That's probably why he ran! It was my fault!" she cried hysterically into Rogue's arms for the second time that day. Rogue just patted her back awkwardly.

"Kitty, it's not your fault! That bastard hit ya, an' ya had every right ta do whatever it took ta get away from hi—Wait a sec…why didn' ya just phase?" Rogue asked, puzzled, just now remembering that detail.

Kitty looked up at her, that haunted look in her eyes returning. "You, you don't understand…It was… it was so scary…I… I thought he was going to kill me… and I just sat there. It was like I was frozen, like my powers had just shut off. I couldn't move… and then all of a sudden I was saying something, and then he hit me…" Shivers racked her body as she remembered.

"Wh-what did ya say ta him?"

"I said…_oh god_… I wish I could take it back…"

"Shh…Kitty…What did ya say?"

"I told him he was like his father…" a fresh wave of tears hit. "His father… he would beat his mother really bad… eventually she shot him… in front of Lance… and… and then his mom had a nervous breakdown… He went to the orphanage… Oh god! It's _all my fault_!" she sputtered.

Rogue was yet again, shocked, but never the less, Kitty's self-destructive attitude was not good. "Don't ya _dare_ say that it's your fault! Ya said it yourself! Ya thought that asshole was gonna _kill ya_! How on Earth is it _your_ fault that he got scared an' ran? It's not your fault. Calm down… Shh…"

Kitty nodded, and allowed Rogue to drag her up to their room, where she immediately ensconced herself in her bed and fell asleep. Once she was safely in her bed Rogue went to go talk to the Professor about Wanda's predicament. She hoped he would be able to tell if Wanda was sincere or not…

* * *

He was sitting in a dark, dirty, back alley in New York City staring into the wall in front of him. What had he done? _What had he done?_ What was he supposed to do now? He had just run away from the only 'home' he had in these parts, he had no money, no family that he could contact for help…Maybe Sally? But no, he didn't have her number, and he couldn't dump this on her as well… 

So what now? He could get a job maybe. But as what? What skills did he have besides his mutation? Nothing. That was what came to mind. He wasn't smart or extraordinarily strong or anything… So what to do? Right now he was a worthless homeless runaway. _An abusive homeless runaway_, he reminded himself. He would never forgive himself for that… And neither would Kitty. He cringed when he thought of her. Of the last time he had seen her, when she was skidding across the floor, crying out, because of what he had done.

He remembered that night, his promise to her… The promise he had broken.

_Does anything ever scare you?" She looked so adorable and innocent with her glassy, clear blue eyes. Sometimes it was amazing to think of all that she'd been through._

_"Yes…"_

_"Like what?" she asked him, curious._

_"My dad; he really scared me…" he said, closing his eyes, as if trying to make the thoughts that were attacking his mind go away._

_Kitty noticed this and squeezed is arms which encircled her protectively. "Why?"_

_"He- he would hurt my mom."_

_"You mean like yell at her and make her feel bad?"_

_"No… he- he would…hit her…" he trailed off, looking away._

_"I'm sorry," she said, feeling guilty._

_"It's okay."_

_"But I thought you said he was gone," she said, curiosity getting the better of her._

_"He is."_

_"Then why does he still scare you? He can't hurt your mom any more."_

_"I guess I'm just scared that I'll end up like him…"_

_"Oh." Kitty was silent for a minute. "Don't worry; you'll never be like him."_

_"I hope so."_

_"Besides, you said you would always take care of me, and you would never do that to me, right?"_

_"Right," Lance said. "I'll always be there for you." He pulled her closer to him and smiled._

_"Always," he murmured to her now sleeping from. Having said that, he too fell asleep, the lightning flashing outside the window._

God, he was such a lying bastard. He had promised her he would always take care of her. Then she disappeared and when he finally found her again, what did he do? He broke his promise. He hit her; made her feel terrible…

This had to be the worst night of his life. Worse than when his father was shot; worse than when he had to say goodbye to his mother, who didn't even recognize him. It was the most awful feeling in the world, that he had just become what his mother had eventually died trying to protect him from. And the one he had wronged—Kitty Pryde… Just another thing to hate himself about.

Lance was snapped out of his brooding by an unnatural humming noise. Sure, it was New York, you heard the cabs all night, people's TV's from their apartments, police sirens, but this noise didn't belong. It was as if everything around him—the fire escape on the buildings around him, the dumpster, the street signs—it was as if they were all slightly vibrating, but at a very rapid pace.

He lifted his head to look around. There was no way he was just imagining things… He could _feel_ the dumpster pulsing. Something weird was going on. Using the wall as support, he got to his feet apprehensively, his head still flying from one direction to the other, trying to figure out what was behind the noise.

From the shadows to his left he saw the unmistakable form of a man's body emerge. It was well built, he suppose, but looked odd… The man was wearing a cape that was billowing in the breeze and a bucket-like helmet (but who was he to talk—he used a fruit bowl…), but wait a minute! There was no breeze in the alley… The man…he was floating above the ground! Lance slowly put one foot behind the other, wanting to get away from this person as fast as possible, but transfixed by him at the same time. Just as he was going to turn his back to run, the man spoke.

"Lance Alvers; Avalanche?" he said, his voice eerily business like.

_How the hell?_ Lance panicked. "What—what do you want? How do you know my name?"

"I know a great deal more than that, Mr. Alvers, but that is not why I came here."

Lance stood still, like a deer caught in the headlights. Every rational part in his body was screaming at him to run; strange men you meet in dark alleys at night who seem to know everything about you do NOT usually mean well… But he couldn't, another part of him (a very SMALL part of him) wanted to know what this man wanted; wanted to know how much he knew. Lance swallowed hard. "Then what _did_ you come here for?" he asked in a surprisingly calm voice.

"For you of course," the voice showed hints of amusement. "Why _else_ would I be here, talking to you, dear boy?" he chuckled.

That answer _definitely_ creeped Lance out. Alarms were going off in his head: _RUN! Run while you can!_ But he didn't. "Well what do you want? Who are you?"

"I," the man said, "am a mutant by the name of Magneto. I can manipulate magnetic fields. I came here to recruit you to my team of mutants, the Acolytes."

"What?" This kept getting more bizarre by the second. "A team? Like the X-Men?"

At this the man gave a true laugh. "No, no. Quite the opposite, my boy. While Charles believes he can fight for mutant equality and acceptance through protecting the human race, I _know_ acceptance will never come. The only way for mutants and humans to co-exist is to establish superiority."

Which Lance supposed was sugar-coated for "_We have to kill them all_.""And you want me to join this team because?" Lance already knew the answer: this man, 'Magneto,' needed followers; lackeys. But he still wanted to see what the man would say.

"Well, I require assistance. I may be one of the world's most powerful mutants, but I need to have support," he answered, as carelessly as if he were discussing the weather.

_Riiight…_

"If you are wondering what's in it for you, I happen to know that you have recently fled from the Brotherhood and Mystique. I know you have no money, no job, no where to live, and no family to help you. If you join me, you will have a place to stay, food, and clothes; all those basic necessities will be taken care of. All I require is that you go on missions every now and then to further our cause."

_Our _cause? What was with this guy…? But still—he spoke the truth. It couldn't be denied. _He_ _had no where to go._ This way, at least he wouldn't be homeless… Besides, he did sound like he was just trying to help mutants…Even if his plan (or the euphemism he had used) sounded a bit whacked.

"So what do you say? Will you join me, Avalanche?"

_Wait! What about Kitty? She wouldn't want you to join this man who was going against all she fought for…_the (now very tiny) rational voice inside him cried.

_So what? Kitty doesn't care about you anymore! Remember, you fucked that up—if anything, she'll be glad she has an excuse to fight you after what you did…_ Ahh, there was the pessimist in him. Lance inhaled and exhaled before he looked Magneto in the eye. "Sure. Why not?"

And just like that, his fate was sealed. Magneto smiled an oddly disconcerting yet genuine smile, and beckoned for Lance to follow him. Hesitantly, Lance complied. He found himself being helped into a large metallic sphere, shortly joined by Magneto. Lance looked at the sphere in confusion. "What on Earth?"

"This is how we'll be getting to our base of operations. It will fly us there a great deal faster than if we drove."

"Oh." This was getting really weird, really fast. Lance sighed; he was exhausted. He hadn't slept on the bus to New York or in the alley way for fear of the nightmares, but now sleep was inevitable. He would just have to face the nightmares, no matter how much he didn't want to… With that thought in mind, he slowly nodded off, Magneto's eyes upon him.

Lance was still asleep when the sphere touched down. It opened, and Magneto saw the rest of him team. A bit of a rag tag bunch but he would whip them into shape in no time. They would be a real team soon. He looked them over: the Animal, Sabertooth, the Illusionist, Mastermind, the Cajun, Gambit, the Australian, Pyro, and the Russian, Colossus. He was one step closer to his goal.

* * *

**A/N**: Soooo, I decided to do the author's note thing at the end, since I figured you would want to just read the chapter. I hope the longer chapter made up for the slow update, but I'm just coming up with this as I go. I really should start planning out the chapters more… Heh. When I first started writing this I just intended for a fight between Kitty and Lance to occur, but now look what I've gone and done! Lance is a part of the Acolytes! Tee hee. I hope this chapter was worth the wait, even if it is lame… Review! 


	10. Maddening Shroud

Disclaimer: Just thought I'd remind you that none of these characters are mine. Who knew? O.o

--

**Maddening Shroud**

It was dark; dark and quiet. There was no light and no sound. There was no emotion. No happiness, no sadness, no anger; just emptiness. Truth be told, Lance preferred it that way. After spending the whole night tossing and turning in his sleep with nightmares of his father coming back to haunt him (as he knew they would) the eerie emptiness was strangely welcome. It allowed him to lose himself. He didn't have to deal with the repercussions of his actions. He didn't have to brood over what he should have done, but didn't. He didn't have to remember what he did in this blessed darkness.

But, the darkness was the lesser of two evils; he didn't like the dark either. It gave him the nagging feeling that something was terribly wrong. Something wasn't as it should be, but he could not fix it, try as he may. He was powerless against the darkness and the emotions it enthused—or didn't enthuse.

The serene darkness was shattered by a heavily accented voice. It was deep and masculine, and…panicked? "_Non_! _Non,_ _mon_ _ami_! Don' you dare!"

Lance stirred from his sleep, slowly drifting out of his subconscious state, but not opening his eyes. The first coherent thought that ran through his head was, "Why the _hell_ am I dreaming about some French guy?"

He groaned. His body felt as though it had been put through a blender. His legs were completely sore and ached like no other, his stomach was slowly but surely eating itself, and his _head_! There were not words to describe the blood curling agony he felt at the moment. He couldn't remember why though.

What could he have possibly been doing that had gotten him into this state of exhaustion? What on earth could have these side effects? It's not like Mystique drilled them hard or anything…

Slowly turning over in bed, Lance gradually opened his eyes, only to be startled in to jumping straight out of the bed he was occupying, have his foot get entangled with the sheets, and fall with a thud onto the floor.

"Uhhh," Lance moaned into the rug. _Where the hell am I?_

The shock of awakening to find himself in a completely unfamiliar bed in a completely unfamiliar room had definitely gotten a rise out of him. While he tried to jog his memory to see if he could remember how he had gotten here, that same voice from his dream started up again.

"Pyro, _mon ami_, please," the voice pleaded. "_Please_ put the lighter down…C'mon… St. John? John? _Non_! You better not light dose socks up! I's warnin' you—"

_What on earth?_ He must have been drunk last night, because no one in their right mind would have chosen to willingly come here… Lance looked around the room. He was in a bedroom; he had a roommate from the looks of the other bed. His roommate kept a very plain, neat, and organized room. On his nightstand was a picture of a little girl (seven, maybe eight) with blonde, blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes, and what looked suspiciously like a sketch book. Other than that, his roommate seemed to have no personal belongings. How strange.

_Ok Lance, you can do this. Just think: what were you doing last night?_ he coached himself. _Dinner... Dinner with Kitty… Then… Oh shit… The mall—oh god… No! I.. I hit her..._

_((The bitch deserved it!))_

_**NO!** No… I ran. Then what?_ What had happened next? _That man…_

_Magneto! I went with Magneto. Where am I now then?_

Before Lance had time to ponder over the missing piece of the puzzle the voices from the next room interrupted him.

"Aww! C'm on mate! You're no fun!" a second voice began. "How 'bout just a little?"

"_Non_! No—John! You better put dat lighter away! I's serious! I's not takin' chances dis time!"

The second voice giggled insanely.

"NOO!"

_Whoosh._

_Thud._

"AHHHHHH!" A scream of agony from the first voice.

"Jeez, mate, I was just joking with ya! No need to dive over here like something outta Mission Impossible 'er somethin'! An' now lookit what you've done! I wouldn'a burnt yer socks if you hadn' c'm crashin' inta me like that!"

"Das. De las'. Straw! I's can' take no more o' dis! I's gots no more socks! Dose were de las' ones, an' now dey're GONE! ARGH!"

_Grunt._

_Thump._

"_Ooof_!"

"Oi mate! Give 'er back! No don't—"

More insane laughter. "Oh, how de tables have turned, _mon ami_!"

"No! Not Beth! Don't do it, mate… Just don't! Have a heart!"

The voices trailed off from there, in a verbal stand off.

The door opened. Lance's head turned towards the door immediately. And what he saw made him take a step back. There was a man there, but he was no ordinary man. This man was HUGE. He was built like an ox! He was pale, had jet black hair in a buzz cut, was unbelievably tall, and was incredibly muscular. In short (although there was nothing short or small about this man)—he was _really_ intimidating. Lance gulped.

"Hello comrade," the man spoke softly and uncertainly in short chopped syllables. "I… I am Piotr Rasputin of Russia. You call…American comrades call I…call _me_ Peter," he got out, and gave a short smile which didn't reach his eyes. His face quickly returned to its default look of sadness and emptiness.

_Him and me both…_

"Oh…uh…hi. I'm Lance," Lance dutifully stuck out his hand, which Peter gladly shook.

"Lance," he repeated, as if confirming that Lance's name was indeed Lance.

"Yeah. Hey …This may sound a little strange, but I have no idea where I am or what I'm doing here…Could you, uh…fill me in?"

A speck of amusement managed to make itself known, shining through his unfathomably blue eyes. "Yes. We are at Mount Ararose Ski Resort, Magneto's base of operations."

Lance's eyebrows rose and his mouth formed a perfect "Oh." _A ski resort?_

_I'm beginning to think this was all a VERY bad idea… I wish none of this had ever happened…_

Lance sighed. "Thanks."

"Magneto asked that you be introduced to the rest of the Acolytes," Peter said, his skill with the English language growing as he became more comfortable with Lance.

"Oh. Okay…"

"Please come with me," he said, trying to sound friendly, as he walked out the door. Lance followed feeling ill at ease.

_I guess I'm stuck here…There's no point turning back now…_

He took a deep breath as Peter opened the door to the neighboring room; the room where the two crazy voices had been coming from. _Oh boy…_

When Lance stepped into the room, the sight that greeted him was odd to say the least. Lance didn't know whether he should get help, starting laughing hysterically, or call the police. By the way the Russian, Peter, was reacting, it seemed that this was a fairly often occurrence.

Two men, both of whom were still in their late teens (possibly early twenties), were grappling with each other. One had crazy orange-ish-red hair, and was only half dressed, wearing a t-shirt and neon yellow rubber ducky boxers. The crazy one was attempting to keep his roommate in a head lock while groping his fist, which was wrapped tightly around something.

A lighter.

"John-boy! Don' you make me blow dis up!" the victim managed to choke out.

"Give. 'Er. Back!"

"Dat's….it…"

_Grunt_.

_Squeal._

Lance looked on in awe as the lighter was consumed by a glowing pink-fuchsia color.

_Thump_ (The crazy haired one had dived for cover).

_BOOM_.

"NOOOO! Piotr! Remy killed Beth! 'E murdered 'er! You saw! 'E blew 'er up! 'E—"

"Remy only blew Beth up because you incinerated m' socks!"

_Remy? Who's Remy?_ A very confused Lance thought.

"Quiet. Both of you," Piotr said, not even the slightest hint of a smile playing at his lips. He had merely looked on and let the fight run its usual course—it always ended the same. One would think that Lighter-Boy would learn, after going through nine Zippos in one week, that he shouldn't mess with the dark haired one's socks. Or anything else of his for that matter.

It was amazing how they both shut up as he said this. "Magneto wants you to meet the new recruit: Lance."

The Australian shifted his gaze onto Lance. "St. John Allerdyce at yer service," he said, sounding extraordinarily like one of the dwarves from _The Hobbit_, all the while grinning like the Devil himself.

_Well, that's what you call bi-polar… Maybe that's his power?_

"Remy LeBeau," the other stated simply.

_So _he's_ Remy…Just great, he talks in and out of third person. I'm beginning to think I'm in a nuthouse._

"Hello," Lance said, rather awkwardly.

A short silence followed, but St. John Allerdyce quickly amended that. "Well," he said, dragging out the word for all it was worth, "as much fun as this is I _do_ believe I'll 'ave to catch you blokes later." He winked an outlandish one-and-a-half-eyed wink and walked out of the room still in his boxers.

"Don' mind John. He be like dat all de time. He's a bit off. You get used to it after a while. For de most part. Have you met the Pussy yet?"

Lance choked on the air he was inhaling. "_What_?"

_This place is strange_.

"Now _he _be a psychopath. Makes Johnny-boy look half-way sane. Or de monkey? Dat's one fucked up _homme_."

This place was very strange indeed.

--

Mystique was seething. She had received his message an hour prior to the present moment, and had locked herself in her room (God knew, she could only put up with the idiots that lived in her boarding house for so long) where she had been throwing pillows and lamps in a blind rage. Not even the telephone was safe as she short circuited it and smashed it across the wall, screaming in frustration.

"Who the HELL does that bastard think he is, that he can do this to me? Mystique is one not so easily set aside!" she screamed to no one in particular.

It had been three weeks since Lance Alvers had disappeared, and she had searched high and low to find him. She had pulled all her sources, called in all her favors, and even Destiny said she couldn't find him. Or perhaps she could, and was keeping it to herself in a misguided attempt to alter the future; or maybe she just didn't want to be the one to give Mystique the bad news that would set her off. It was probably the latter, seeing as she had just discovered that Lance had been with _Magneto_ the whole time!

_The nerve of that man…_

She had called him some weeks ago, to inform him that Alvers had disappeared and that she could use some assistance locating him (she would NEVER flat-out _ask_ for help, it wasn't her style, it showed weakness; thank god she hadn't—her pride was already wounded deeply enough as it was) and he had finally contacted her today, only to say, "I no longer require your skills."

_I no longer require your skills._ I NO LONGER REQUIRE YOUR SKILLS? What the FUCK did that mean? And who the hell did he think he was? Her boss or something? Mystique worked for no man! They had been 'partners in crime.' The deal had been that she would assemble a team of mutants for him, of which she would be the leader: the one with all the power. _He_ was only supposed to be the brains behind the operation. The funding. The information resource. After all, he was only an old man.

That had been her first mistake: underestimating Magneto. That had definitely come back to bite her in the ass. After he told her she had been 'let go' he said that he had Avalanche, and he wouldn't need any of her other recruits. He said they didn't 'meet his standards.' Mystique wanted to kill him…wanted to _tear him apart!_

His contract with her had been nothing more than a ruse. She had gone to all the trouble of recruiting this hopeless half-assed team, had brought them all to live in this god-awful Boarding House, and had attempted to get them to work as a team! All this, just so that he could pick and choose which ones he wanted to join his ranks, leaving her with the average or below-average leftovers.

Although she did think it strange that he had elected to not recruit his children.

Oh _yes_, she knew_ all _about that particular situation. She had done a thorough background check on him before entering the contract with him (but apparently it wasn't thorough enough) and had learned that he had two children; they were twins: Wanda and Pietro. What a mess his family was… Practically made hers look like your regular 40's sitcom family unit.

But still, no matter how dysfunctional Magneto's relationships with his offspring were, one had to raise the question: why had he not taken Pietro? Why had he not chosen his own eager-to-please son? Pietro's mutation certainly wasn't shabby, and he had perfect control. It didn't make any sense… Then again, neither did Magneto.

Mystique was, however, positive that he didn't know about Wanda. After all, she had only freed the girl from the asylum (which Magneto had her committed to) very recently, and it seemed highly unlikely that Magneto would learn of Wanda's escape since he obviously didn't keep up with what they did to her in there, what went on behind closed doors. No parent, no matter how cruel or unfeeling, would ever willingly want to put their child through that. He wasn't _that_ much of a monster, was he?

No matter, though. She would get her revenge. After all, what was that old proverb? "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." Indeed. _Yes_, Mystique smiled sadistically, _things_ _are definitely starting to look up._

--

"My Acolytes," Magneto imperiously addressed the five men in front of him. "I will now brief you for your first mission as a team. We must—"

"What about de pussy-cat, _hahn_? Why isn't he here?" Remy interrupted insolently.

Magneto eyed him, his expression unreadable. "He is taking care of other business. Now… The time has come to dispose of a very powerful enemy, and at the same time, gain a potent ally. I will require all of you to play a part in this. If we fail, we will have a very large _thorn_ in our side…"

--

"Rogue, are you _sure_ this is a good idea?" Kitty nervously whispered to her friend for the umpteenth time that afternoon as she clasped and unclasped her hands.

"Of course it is. All we're goin' ta be doin' is talkin'. It's not like we're breakin' any laws… Jesus Kitty, ya take paranoid to a whole new level," Rogue answered.

The two girls were sitting in a coffee shop booth, sipping their drinks, chatting, waiting, waiting…

"Then why isn't she _here_ yet? I don't like this. From what I've heard about Mystique—" Kitty's throat unconsciously tightened as she thought back to how Lance had been so unwilling to disobey her. "—you don't want to get on her bad side."

"Oh please… Mystique? She's a bitch, is all. I lived with the woman. She's all talk. Besides, without Wanda, the two of us could prob'ly kick her team's ass into next Tuesday," Rogue smirked.

"If you say so…" Kitty said, still uneasy. She wrapped her arms around her abdomen and looked around cautiously.

At that moment, the bells above the door jingled, informing them that someone had entered. The two girls' heads instantaneously flew towards the door, and then sighed with relief. Wanda had just entered, and was making her way to their booth.

"Sorry I'm a bit late… Getting out of the Boarding House when Pietro is hopped up on gummy bears is no easy task," Wanda explained, hoping the two X-Men would not be angry. She needed their help, and if they thought she was the slightest bit insincere…

"No problem. And let me offer mah condolences," Rogue returned sympathetically. "Now, as much as I would enjoy talkin' about the fine specimen of life that is your brother—"

Wanda scoffed.

"—we've got more pressin' matters to be discussed."

Kitty nodded. "Right. So what _exactly_ is going on?"

Wanda grimaced. She didn't want to relay the story again, recounting how time after time she had been trapped against her will. She didn't like to. It made her feel weak. Like an insignificant pawn to be thrown away. _I'll show Magneto what he threw away…_

"Wanda?" Kitty's voice snapped her out of her reverie. She shook her head, as if trying to purge the thoughts of revenge from her mind. _Don't get too ahead of yourself…_

"It's Mystique," Wanda began in a low voice. "She's blackmailing me into staying at the Boarding House. She broke me out of a… an asylum before I came here. She said she would give me somewhere to stay if I joined her 'team'. She even found Agatha Harkenss to help me with control. I told her I appreciated the offer, but I would rather be out on my own. She told me I either stayed with her or went back to the asylum…" A shiver ran through her body.

_Typical…_ Rogue cocked her head to the side. "Couldn' ya jus' hex the asylum guards off?"

Wanda shook her head violently. "You… you don't understand. They're accustomed to dealing with me… I don't want to risk going back there… _That place_… It… It was awful," Wanda finished, her voice now a weak whisper.

Kitty and Rogue glanced at each other briefly. To see Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, scared and shaking was definitely a new experience. One that they did not like in the least. "So what do we have to do?" Kitty asked her intently.

"Well, first I'd have to—"

Wanda was interrupted by the jingling of the bells. The three girls paused to give the newcomer a once-over. He was tall, well-built, and attractive, in his late teens… His hair was a fiery orange—or was it red?—but his grin seemed a bit off. It reached his eyes, but seemed to burn in an eerily mad sort of way. Wild and unpredictable… His mannerisms and the way he carried himself seemed to scream _You have no idea what I'll do next._

And that's when Wanda noticed it. Hanging out of his pocket was a sleek metal keychain. It was a simple piece, shiny and new, engraved with a strong, solid "M". Her eyes widened, and she stiffened noticeably.

"Wanda? Wanda, what's wrong?" Kitty asked, not noticing anything relevant or threatening about the café's newest customer.

"That guy—he has something to do with Magneto. He's working for him or something. We have to follow him!" she whispered keenly to her companions.

"What? Are ya _crazy_? Where'd ya come up with that? And why would we want ta follow him?" Rogue asked, baffled by Wanda's sudden personality change.

One second she was petrified at the thought of stepping out of line and being forced to go back to the asylum, and the next she was demanding they follow some stranger they had never seen before because she claimed he had some sort of connection to Magneto, a powerful and dangerous mutant the Professor had told them about.

"That man—that mutant, I'm willing to bet—he's in contact with Magneto somehow. If we follow him he'll lead us right to that bastard… And then…" She smiled maliciously.

"Whoa, whoa! Wanda, slow down! What about Mystique? I thought you said if you left she would—"

The man had finished paying for his coffee, and seemed to be bouncing in anticipation to have a taste of its caffeine goodness. He looked around, but not seeing an empty booth, decided to leave the café.

Wanda stood up abruptly. "Look Kitty, he's leaving and I have no time to explain. Just trust me. I _need_ to follow this guy and I will. Fuck Mystique. I'm going _now_; you guys are free to come with me."

"Wait, Wanda! Don't ya think you're bein' a bit rash? How the hell do ya know he's even a _mutant_, let alone that he works for Magneto? Ah'm not normally a doubtin' Thomas, but this is outta _no where_!" Rogue tried to rationalize.

"God _dammit_! He's getting away! Here's the deal: I'm following this guy. I know he's in with Magneto. Don't ask me how. I just do. Now you guys can either let me go now or come with me, but make up your minds _fast_ because if I lose him…" She left the threat hanging in the air, unfinished.

It had the desired effect.

"Well, we're not going to let you get beat to a pulp by some evil super-mutant. After all, if we did, what kind of friends would we be?" Kitty grined.

_Friends... They're your friends..._

"Damn straight," Rogue added her two bits.

"Well then it's settled," Wanda replied. "Now get your asses moving so we can catch up to this guy!"

--

A/N: Well that's chapter 10. I'm not sure if I like it too much. It's not really what I had in mind originally, but as I was writing it, this is just how it decided to come out. Oh well. ) And I realize the last time I updated was almost a year ago and I wanted to say I am so sorry. I hope I haven't lost _too _many people... Please review and tell me what you think. I'm starved for them and I love hearing from you guys!

Thanks to **Risty**, **Anti-XYo**, **Ray1**, **LadyEvils**, **CrimsonCoyote**, **Flamekiller**, **EmeraldKatsEye**, **Lance Avalanche Alvers**, **lifeofla-silverwolf**, **Ridderazzo**, **Nessie6**, **Alison**, **Chaos-Shadow05**, **DOJ**, **Not4everfool**, **Slytherinbabe05**, and **El Diablo** for reviewing. You guys are awesome! Now do it again for me )


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